A New Ally(1)
by AlyRain
Summary: Ever wonder if there were more gundams? Or Gundam pilots and scientists? And have you ever wondered who the Foreign Minister is? Story begins in A.C. 195, is some what AU in A.C.195.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: Alrighty, this is my first GW fanfic so please be kind. Please review it means a lot to me! This story may seem a bit slow and maybe confusing at the beginning, but the further along into the storyline, the more sense it makes. For disclaimer, see end of page. Also, if anyone has any questions or suggestions then feel free to let me know in the reviews or e-mail me at Aly_Rain_ZZ@yahoo.com  
  
Thanks!  
  
-AlyRain  
  
A New Ally (1): Prologue  
  
In the year A.C. 182,  
  
In a large office building in New York City,  
  
A middle-aged man named Mike Franklin sat at a large, expensive desk in a fancy office overlooking the city. The man was quickly typing on a computer while an unknown person began pounding on the door.  
  
"I know you're in there Franklin!" A gruff voice called from the other side of the door. Franklin glanced towards the door with a frightened look and continued typing. He stopped typing long enough to pull a disk from the open briefcase on his desk. Hastily shoving the disk into the computer, he began saving all of the information onto it.  
  
Once the disk was done copying all of the information, Franklin ejected it from the disk drive and quickly scribbled "Mobile Suit Designs, Location, and Operation Sunrise" onto the label on the disk. He pulled a manila envelope out of his briefcase and put the disk into it along with a letter. Sealing the envelope, he quickly wrote, "Cherise Franklin" and an address on the front. He stood up and walked over to the mail slot in the wall and dropped the large envelope into it.   
  
The frazzled man walked back over to his computer and began deleting all the information on it. The man who had been pounding on the door was now trying to break it open. The Door was rattling on its hinges as the unknown man continued pounding on it.  
  
"Franklin, open this damned door! You know why I'm here so you just give it up already!"  
  
Mike Franklin could hear the man's body slamming against the door as he tried to break it down. He glanced at his watch, knowing the envelope down in the mailroom would be picked up within the next few minutes. The man on the other side of the door succeeded in breaking it open and pulled out his gun, leveling it at Franklin.  
  
"You know why I'm here don't you? You've got information and my boss wants it." He said in a gruff voice.  
  
"It doesn't matter if you kill me. The information's already been sent out. You're too late." Franklin said with a self-satisfied smirk.  
  
"But you do still have some of the information on your computer." The hitman said.  
  
"No just one page is all you'll get, a page of nothing! What will your boss think about that?" Franklin said triumphantly.  
  
"My boss won't like it very much. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to kill you anyway. Good bye Franklin." The hitman said and shot Franklin without hesitation.   
  
"What a shame... If you hadn't gotten on my boss' bad side maybe you would have been able to at least say good-bye to that darling little family of yours." The hitman stared at the body on the floor for a moment before stepping over it and walking out the broken door.  
  
***  
  
A.C. 195:  
  
A girl who appeared to be around 15 years old with light brown, shoulder length hair and silvery-blue eyes sat staring at the vid-phone on the desk in front of her. She regretted having to pick it up, knowing she would have nothing of good news to say when she did.   
  
The girl nervously drummed her fingers on the desktop and stared at the vid-phone a while longer. With a sigh, she turned on the screen and entered the number. The call was answered on the third ring.  
  
"Hello?" A male voice inquired. An image of a middle-aged man with sandy-blonde hair and a mustache came onto the screen. The girl took a breath before answering.  
  
"Hello Mr. Winner, is Quatre available?" The girl asked, raising an eyebrow the slightest bit. Mr. Winner looked distressed at the mention of his son's name.  
  
"Oh hello little Miss Shadows. I'm sorry, but Quatre is not here at the moment."  
  
The girl smiled politely. "Oh, well do you know where he is, Mr. Winner?"  
  
"No, I do not know where Quatre is..." Mr. Winner looked nervous. The girl could not tell if he was nervous about his son's whereabouts, or simply talking about him.  
  
"If you will excuse me, Miss Shadows, but I really must go..." Mr. Winner said quickly. She raised her eyebrow even further and a look of concern passed over her features.  
  
"No it's alright. If you hear from him soon, please let him know I called."  
  
Mr. winner nodded. "Good bye Miss Shadows."  
  
"Good bye." The screen went blank and the girl stared at it with a puzzled look.  
  
'I'm sorry I won't be able to say goodbye... Where are you...?' Ms. Shadows inquired silently to herself.  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters in any way, shape, or form. I do however own the Franklins and "Miss Shadows".  
  
Warning: Before you continue reading this fic, I want to clarify something-this fanfic has many added characters, so if you don't like that kinda fic then you may not like this one.  
  
Please Review! 


	2. Ch 1: Shadows From The Past

A/N: Ok, this is my first GW fanfic so please be kind!

Please review it means a lot to me! Depending on what kind of reviews I get on this will determine whether or not I submit the next chapter. For disclaimer, see end of page.

Now, on with the story!

A New Ally (1) Ch. 1: Shadows From The Past

Many more events happened before and after the assassination of Mike Franklin, but this is where the story really begins:

-Year A.C. 195-

"Ms. Shadows! There is an unidentified space craft in the area, but they are too far away to get a visual." Mr. Katz, the pilot of the L7 colony-owned shuttle said, turning towards the Colony Official. The young, light-brown haired Colony Official glanced at him out of the corner of one gray-blue eye.

"It's probably a White Fang group." Ms. Natalya Shadows, the Colony Official, said from her seat in the co-pilot's chair. "Get them on the line and tell them to identify themselves. And inform them that I will be heading over to their shuttle as soon as it is close enough." She looked up from the clipboard she was holding with the shuttle numbers that they were supposed to check that day. Glancing past Mr. Katz at the screen, she saw a shuttle coming into view, as it got closer to their shuttle. Mr. Katz nodded and hit a few buttons connecting the line between the two shuttles.

"Attention, you are entering the territory of the L7 Colony. Discard your weapons at once. We will be sending our official over to your spacecraft." Mr. Katz announced before he disconnected the line.

"I'll be right back." Natalya said as she stood up from her seat. She floated out the sliding door behind their seats that lead out of the cockpit.

A few minutes later, Natalya floated back through the sliding door. She was clad in a flight suit and carried her helmet under one arm. She looked out the window at the shuttle that was now in front of them. The hatch of the other shuttle had opened.

"Open the hatch." The girl instructed before she floated back out the sliding air lock door. She grasped the tow bar and it pulled her over to the door of the cargo hold. Pushing the button beside the door, she waited as it slid to the side, allowing her to drift through.

The door slid shut behind her and she pulled on her helmet. She floated past two white, Taurus mobile suits sitting side by side in the vast cargo hold, glanced at them briefly, then waited for the hatch to open.

'Some of the other colonies won't stand a chance if they're attacked, they barely have any armaments, and no mobile suits whatsoever.' She thought to herself. 'At least we have various mobile suits on our colony if they are ever needed as a defense. Natalya thought to herself.

Just then, the hatch opened and she pushed off towards the other spacecraft.

Once Natalya reached the open hatch of the other shuttle, she floated in and the hatch closed behind her. Several large objects covered with canvas tarps immediately caught her attention.

'Mobile suits?' She inquired in her head as she lifted the flap on one.

"A Gundam!" Natalya exclaimed. She pushed away from the mobile suit quickly, as though it were hot. "Who ARE these people?"

The young girl floated towards the sliding door leading to the front of the spacecraft. She watched as it slid open before she drifted through it. The door slid shut behind her. She looked up to find a woman who looked oddly familiar standing before her.

The young woman looked a mere five years older than Natalya. Her hair was cut short, with long, nearly black bangs hanging in her face, shadowing her blue eyes. Upon further inspection, Natalya estimated the woman to be half a foot taller than herself, yet had the same slender looking figure.

"Are you the pilot of this spacecraft?" Natalya asked, taking off her helmet and holding it under one arm.

"Yes, my name is Lucrezia Noin." The young woman said, extending her hand. Natalya shook her hand and furrowed her brow.

"Lucrezia Noin...? I've heard of you before." Natalya said, letting go of her hand.

"I did not know I was mentioned very often." Noin replied.

"Well, I am not sure how often you are mentioned. I heard about you from my father."

"Your father? Hey, aren't you the Foreign Minister, Tayeari's daughter?" Noin asked, studying the younger girl.

"Yes I'm Natalya Tayeari-Shadows, the Colony Official. Why?" Natalya asked.

"No reason really. It's a pleasure to meet you." Noin said with a slight bow. Natalya nodded and bowed her head to return the respect.

"Is the official here?" A male voice inquired whilst stepping out from behind Noin. Natalya blinked quickly. A shocked look spread across her face as she looked at the young man.

He looked to be about Natalya's age and was a few inches taller than her. He had a chestnut braid that was approximately a meter long, and blue eyes that looked almost violet in the light of the hallway. The young girl recognized the boy instantly as Duo Maxwell.

"Duo?" Natalya questioned. She dropped her helmet to the floor as she pushed off swiftly, floating past Noin and up to him. Stopping directly in front of him, she studied him with an odd expression.

"Hey...Aly." Duo said simply, a confused, yet amused look spreading on his face.

"You're alive..." Natalya said, a disbelieving frown crossing her face.

The boy did not respond. Guilt crossed his features upon seeing the girl frown.

"Hey Noin, is the official from L7 here?"

Duo and Natayla both looked up to see the newly arrived person. For the second time that day, Natalya felt her brain freeze in shock.

Standing beside Noin was a young boy with short, platinum locks hanging in his bright blue eyes. Behind him was another boy Natalya did not recognize, leaning against the wall silently.

Unlike the first boy, his expression was not nearly as light. His one, visible blue-green eye, under his very long, medium brown bangs seemed far away and sad. Natalya wondered why the taller boy seemed so depressed.

The blonde boy was the first to speak. His mouth had fallen open in silent surprise as he studied Natalya closely.

"Aly? Are you the L7 Official?" The blonde boy asked after overcoming his initial shock.

"Yes. I came here to inspect the shuttle." Natalya responded. The blonde boy drifted closer to stand directly in front of her, beside Duo.

"How did you become the Colony Official?" Quatre asked, trying to break the silence and settle his blossoming curiosity.

"A while after you disappeared, my father became the new colony leader. Not long after, he decided to stick me with Colony Official duties." Natalya explained.

"But I thought your father was still the Foreign Minister...? How does he have time to fills both positions of the Foreign Minister and the Colony Leader?" Quatre asked.

"Back before Vice-Foreign Minister Dorlain died, he was not really needed much as the Foreign Minister. But now that the Vice-Foreign Minister is gone, my father will be resigning from his position as Colony Leader and return to his duties as Foreign Minister. It is just taking longer than expected to put his replacement in office." Natalya replied. Quatre nodded, accepting her answer.

"I can't believe you two know each other." Duo mumbled. Quatre and Natalya both turned to examine the long-haired boy.

"You know her too?" Quatre asked, his surprise clearly presented in his expression.

"Yes. I have not seen her for years." Duo replied.

"I thought after...what had happened on L2 you had died as well." Natalya said, her expression turning dark and sorrowful.

The room was heavy with silence. Noin, sensing the discomfort, wanted to speak up, but was unsure what to say.

"I hate to interrupt...but, what areas of the shuttle do you need to inspect Ms. Shadows?" The boy leaning against the wall finally asked.

Snapping back to her official state of mind, Natalya considered her duties at hand.

"Do who pilots the gundams in the cargo hold?" The young girl asked to the three four others in the room.

Noin looked at the three teens in the room with a concerned look on her face. They all seemed to have been holding a wordless discussion.

"The three of us do; Trowa, Quatre and I." Duo replied after some time.

"You do?" Aly's eyebrows raised in surprise. Quatre and Duo fidgeted nervously while the boy against the wall, Trowa, and Noin remained stationary.

"That's why you left isn't it?" Natalya asked Quatre, referring to when she had found out about his disappearance.

The blonde boy nodded once, unsure if he should explain more.

"I wonder why my father never told me." Natalya frowned.

"What do you mean?" Duo asked.

"I was supposed to join up with other gundam pilots... It makes no sense that my father did not tell me you two were among them." Aly said thoughtfully.

"Join? You mean you are a gundam pilot?" Duo asked incredulously. Natalya noticed that the boy against the wall had tensed.

"Yeah, I was supposed to pilot a prototype for a gundam called the 'Wing Zero', but something went wrong...the factory was destroyed." Aly replied, a frown crossing her face.

"Well that's good. That gundam is evil." Quatre said gravely.

"So I've heard." Natalya replied.

"If you are a pilot, why have we never heard of you before?" Trowa asked, narrowing his visible eye at the shorter girl.

"I said I was supposed to be a pilot. Not that I was one." Natalya replied, returning the boy's hard stare.

Lowering her gaze, Natalya noticed her watch and frowned again.

"I have to get back to my shuttle now. I came over here because I thought this might have been a White Fang spacecraft...I will write the report off as a simple cargo shuttle." Natalya said. She picked up her helmet from where she'd dropped it beside Noin.

The girl knew there were many things she still wanted to discuss with Duo and Quatre, but she did not have the time or the heart to do so. Her mind reasoned that it was perhaps for the best if there were things she did not know. It was hard enough knowing that three of the five rebel gundam pilots were standing before her at that moment. And, harder still knowing that two of them had once been friends of hers.

"Thank you." Quatre said when no one else responded. With a nod, the girl drifted towards the sliding door leading out to the cargo hold.

Once outside of the sliding door, Natalya drifted downwards, and out towards the open hatch. Using the thrusters of her space pack, she propelled herself to the open hatch of her own spacecraft.

The girl landed inside the cargo hold of her own spacecraft and kept going until she had reached the door connecting to the front of the shuttle. She leaned her back against the wall and slid into a sitting position.

With a shaky breath, she pulled her helmet off and set it beside herself. She brought her knees up towards her chest and wrapped her arms loosely around her legs, laying her chin on her knees.

It had been a long time since she had seen Duo or Quatre. And, she had not even allowed herself to say goodbye the either of them. In spite of herself, she wondered what they were thinking at that moment.

"Ms. Shadows?"

Natalya looked up to see Adam Katz, the pilot of the shuttle, standing in front of her.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah I'm fine. And don't be formal around me Adam. Just because we work together doesn't mean you have to be so damn formal." Natalya replied.

"Sorry Aly. I guess I keep forgetting." Adam said with a sheepish grin. Natalya did not respond. She stood up and picked up her helmet, following Adam as he returned to the cockpit of the shuttle.

"Your father is on the line. He wants to speak to you." Adam said when the pair had reached the cockpit.

Natalya drifted over to the screen and pressed a few buttons.

"Yes?" She asked as a middle-aged man with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes appeared on the screen. The man smiled when he saw his daughter.

"Did you inspect the unidentified spacecraft and speak to the pilot?" Natalya's father, Foreign Minister Tayeari, inquired.

"Yes, I spoke with the pilot."

"And was it a White Fang craft?"

"No, nothing like that."

"Was it a gundam?" Foreign Minister Tayeari asked with a slightly quirked eyebrow. Natalya started to answer, then hesitated. She noticed an OZ soldier was standing behind her father, reading something in a manila folder.

'I can't tell my father that the gundam pilots are here, not with an OZ soldier standing right behind him. Maybe not even if the OZ member wasn't there. It's just too big of a risk, even though my father is on their side... OZ could get the information from him.' Natalya rationalized in her mind.

"No it was just someone in the salvage business from the L2 colony." Natalya replied.

"But the L2 colony is in the other direction." Her father pointed out.

"Yes I know. He was heading to pick up some things on a different colony."

"Very well. I need you to return to the colony. You need to work on the I.A. Project."

"But I haven't gotten to Earth to pick up those documents like you asked."

"I know, but White Fang is getting more persistent."

"I understand." Natalya said softly. She turned off the screen and cut the connection before falling into her seat. Adam turned the shuttle around, heading back towards the L7 colony.

While Adam piloted the shuttle back to L7, Natalya drifted away, towards the sliding door leading out of the cockpit. Outside the door, she grasped a tow bar and was pulled slowly down the hallway.

A door slid shut behind Natalya as she stepped into the short hallway and pushed off again, floating out another sliding door at the end of it. She had entered a small room.

In front of the girl stood another door leading into the cargo hold. To her left and right were two tall, metallic cases with glass windows. She drifted towards one of the cases and looked through the glass at the contents.

There was a row of midnight blue flight suits hanging side by side and a matching helmet above each one on a shelf that was the same silvery, metallic color as the case. The girl pushed a button on the end closest to the door to the cargo hold and the glass slid down. She took off her flight suit and hung it in its reserved space. Picking up her helmet from where she had set it on the floor, she placed it above her flight suit on the shelf.

Natalya studied her flight suit sitting in its own little space, the one second closest to the door to the cargo hold. It had the initials N. S. T. above the colony symbol of a silver sun with a silvery-blue crescent moon inside of it. She fingered the part that held the colony symbol and thought for a moment.

Natalya let go of her flight suit and pushed the button next to the glass case. The glass slid back up. She looked down at her outfit consisting of a pair of khaki cargo pants and a long-sleeved black t-shirt bearing the colony symbol on the upper left corner of the front as well as the back. She smoothed out a wrinkle in her shirt and pushed off towards the door leading back towards the cockpit.

Once back inside the cockpit, Natalya returned to her seat beside Adam. She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes while she waited for their arrival on L7.

It was not until a beeping sound from the main console of the shuttle sounded that Natalya realized she had fallen asleep. Opening her eyes, she looked at the screen in front of Adam and herself and noticed that they were entering the colony.

'Welcome home...' Natalya thought.

Once Adam and Natalya had taken the shuttle back to the station, they had quickly parted their separate ways home.

While Natalya walked down the street toward her house, she thought about the trip to Earth she and Adam had been en route to. They had been going to Earth to pick up some important documents for Natalya's father before Adam had noticed the unidentified shuttle come up on their shuttle's radar.

Natalya's thoughts shifted to having found Duo and Quatre on that unidentified craft. The girl was happy she had had the chance to see them and find out they were alive, but sadly, having had to go inspect their shuttle had slowed down her trip to Earth. By the time she had returned to her shuttle, her father had told her she could not go to earth after all; she had to return to L7 and work on the I.A. Project.

It had been a very long time since Natalya had been to earth. She missed it. Her hopes had been pretty high when she thought about returning there even for a short time. Earth had always seemed more peaceful than the colonies.

The teen halted her train of thoughts as she reached the gates to her house. She walked over to the little box next to the gates and entered the security code. The gates opened slowly and she walked in. The gates closed behind her and she looked up at her house. It was the second largest house on the colony. It was also one of the most expensive, expensive because it was one of the newest houses on the colony. It was a beautiful house, but sometimes it seemed a bit too large for Natalya's tastes.

Once inside the house, Natalya was warmly greeted by one of the many maids of the Tayeari estate.

"Good evening Miss Natalya. Would you like me to take your jacket?" Ms. Cole accosted her.

"Good evening Ms. Cole!" Natalya said, smiling despite her earlier depressed thoughts. Thank you, but I will take my jacket to the upstairs closet myself." Natalya pulled off her windbreaker and draped it over one arm.

"Are you sure?" Ms. Cole asked. The teen nodded in response. Ms. Cole returned her smile and walked out of the room, into the kitchen.

When Natalya reached the top floor, after climbing the grand staircase facing the front door, she walked down the hallway to a closet and opened the door. After placing her windbreaker on a coat hanger, she turned to look down the hallway on either side of herself. The hallway was clear of all people.

Natalya pushed the jackets and coats aside and stepped into the closet. She shut the door behind herself and walked through a secret panel in the wall. She stepped through, onto a platform. After sliding the panel shut, the platform went down.

The platform stopped and Natalya stepped off. She walked over to a row of computer consoles. Past the computers, out a window that was behind the entire row of computer consoles was a dark room. She pressed a button on one of the main consoles and the room outside of the viewing glass was illuminated.

Natalya could see into the huge room filled with lots of machinery and a large mobile suit standing next to a platform; a gundam. She stared at the gundam for a long time. It had a white base color with shades of light blue to give it the theme of ice. The gundam had wing thrusters and could transform into flight or fighter mode. Its armaments consisted of twin vulcans on either side of the head and a beam scythe in a holster going at a slant like a sheath on the back of the gundam.

'The I.A. Project, the code name for the Gundam Ice Angel.' Natalya thought to herself. 'Just a few more finishing touches, and then we can help the other pilots.' She pushed another series of buttons on the main console to start a systems check.

'Duo, Quatre, I will be see you again soon...'

-End Of Chapter 1-

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters in any way shape or form. I do however own Aly, Adam Katz, and Foreign Minister Tayeari.

More Author's Notes: This fanfic has many added characters and A.C. 195 is a bit AU, so if you don't like that kinda fic don't continue to read this one! Oh, and on a side note-yes, there will be more than just one additional pilot. However, they aren't gonna show up right away. Besides, it makes things so much more interesting that way! Any additional questions or comments you don't want to put in the reviews send them to please tell me what you think! Domo arigato!

-AlyRain 


	3. Ch 2: The Mysterious New Ally

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or it's characters. I do however own all of the characters not from the original Japanese anime series or the OAV.

Author's Notes: Here's the next part that everyone asked for. I Hope you like it...the next part will be a lot better though. After the next two chapters are up I should have no problem keeping the other ones coming, the other parts I have already written.

Ok, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed-yeah no flamers! Well, domo arigato minna! Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Oh yeah, please forgive me if any battle parts suck, this is my first time trying to write one. Please review!  
-AlyRain New Ally (1) Ch. 2: The Mysterious New Ally

Year A.C. 195, somewhere in space near the L6 Colony, a battle was raging. The gundam pilots were fighting viciously to keep all attacks away from the PeaceMillion. Quatre, Trowa, and Duo were fighting with their gundams' backs to each other, working together to destroy the mobile dolls in front of them while Wufei and Heero were fighting alone.

"Shit! There's so many of them! Where are they all coming from?" Duo asked, panting. The battle had been going on for about half an hour and the gundam pilots were getting tired. However, Heero and Wufei of course, weren't letting on that they were becoming fatigued.

"Three more carriers have shown up!" Quatre said with urgency as his face appeared on all of the other pilots' screens.

"Oh great! Just peachy!" Duo said sarcastically as he sliced two mobile dolls in half with his scythe. Duo was about to say something else when Trowa suddenly interrupted him.

"Uh guys, split up!" Trowa yelled over the com-link to Duo and Quatre as a whole group of mobile dolls aimed their beam riffles point blank range at the trio. Without another word, the three split up and zoomed downward. They heard a crackle of electricity as the beams hit the area where they had been a split second before. They began fighting on their own, taking out any mobile dolls that came their way.

"Quatre there's two coming up behind you!" Heero warned.

"Huh?" Quatre asked as he was busily slicing at one in front of himself. Wufei quickly took out the two mobile dolls behind Quatre and went back to fighting the ones surrounding him.

"Thanks Heero, Thank you Wufei." Quatre said politely. They both just grunted a reply.

"The carriers that just arrived are about to start deploying their mobile suits." Heero said, trying to force his way close enough to the carriers to fire at them.

"Trowa! Try to stop those carriers from deploying any mobile suits! I'll try to get over there as fast as I can. We can destroy the rest of these mobile suits but we can't take on any more!" Heero said to Trowa who was closest to the carriers. Trowa hit the thrusters of the HeavyArms and zoomed closer to the carriers.

"Guys watch my back!" Trowa said to Quatre and Duo who were now behind him. Trowa started to take aim at the fuel tank of the first mobile suit carrier with his machine gun. Trowa cursed under his breath as Duo's DeathScythe, which had just been hit, knocked his HeavyArms Gundam forward. Quatre tried to get rid of the mobile suits that had surrounded Duo and Trowa, but found himself surrounded.

"Heero, where are you? We could use some help over here..." Trowa said, taking aim at one of the mobile suits blocking his aim at the carrier.

"I'd love to help but I'm a little busy right now..." Heero said through clenched teeth as he took out a group of MDs with his buster riffle.

"Uh-oh...the carriers are opening their deployment hatches!" Duo said with a somewhat worried tone.

"Shit! Somebody do SOMETHING!" Heero growled as the Wing Zero took another hit.

"Don't let that carrier deploy any mobile suits!" Wufei chimed in. All of the pilots struggled as hard as they could to try and get to the carriers, but it was no use; the mobile dolls in front of them were blocking their way.

The gundam pilots all subconsciously held their breaths as they watched the carriers' deployment hatches open farther. They continued fighting as they waited, waited for that cursed carrier to unleash another batch of mobile dolls.

That's when it happened. A bright beam of light hit the first mobile suit carrier. Two more beams hit the second and third carriers in rapid succession, causing all three to burst into large balls of flame.

"What the-" Duo began.

"It's a beam riffle..." Heero said slowly. The gundam pilots were all awestruck, as the exploding mobile suit carriers became a wall of flames, wiping out half of the MDs in front of them.

"What...where...?" Quatre asked no one in particular. They all continued to stare, half paying attention to the MDs in front of them that they were still fighting. That's when a large mobile suit appeared, stepping out of the wall of flames. The mobile suit was holding what looked like a beam riffle from one of the MDs. The mobile suit tossed the beam riffle aside, then pulled out a Scythe, much like Duo's, from a holster on its back.

"A gundam?" Quatre exclaimed, disbelief in his voice.

"Who the heck is that guy?" Duo asked his comrades.

"I don't know, but we sure owe him some thanks..." Trowa said.

"Do you think we can trust him?" Quatre asked on a private link. The mysterious new gundam quickly went into action, slashing up mobile dolls here and there as well as the ones charging at it.

"I think we can...for now anyway." Trowa replied.  
The other gundam pilots continued fighting, now more determined than ever to win the battle.

"Trowa watch the two on your left!" Quatre warned. Trowa began to turn, but was distracted by another mobile suit in front of him. He quickly destroyed the one in front of him and started toward the ones on his left.

"Duo behind you." Heero said while slicing two MDs with his beamsaber.

"What?" Duo asked, distracted by the ones above him. Duo turned in time to see the mobile doll behind him slashed up by a glowing green "X". It was the mysterious gundam.

"Hey thanks!" Duo said over the com-link. The pilot of the mysterious new gundam didn't answer, just zoomed away to go help the others.

About half an hour later, all of the mobile dolls had been destroyed. All of the gundam pilots had their gundams floating near each other, within a pile of charred metal debris as they rested. The original five were talking together on a private com-link connection and studying the other gundam.

"So who do you think that guy is?" Duo asked.

"I have no clue." Quatre said, furrowing his brow.

"Well we owe that pilot a lot of gratitude, after all, he did save us all by blowing up those carriers." Trowa said thoughtfully.

"True" Duo said, staring at the gundam's wing thrusters and various shades of blue.

"Well I think this guy's on our side. I mean do you guys see the resemblance between that gundam and mine and Heero's?" Duo asked. Trowa and Quatre nodded while Heero and Wufei simply said, "Hn."

"Yeah, but remember how the scientists were forced to build those two gundams for OZ? How do we know this isn't the same thing?" Heero pointed out.

"Yeah, but OZ is smarter than that, they wouldn't waste so many mobile dolls. And that gundam would have attacked us, not helped us if it was working for OZ." Wufei said with his arms crossed over his chest.

"So what do you think then? There's another organization out there to get back at OZ? And then try to trick us into thinking they're on our side?" Trowa asked Wufei.

"Perhaps." Wufei said simply. Quatre shook his head.

"No, if it was an elaborate trap from a huge organization they would have had more than just one gundam sent here." Quatre said. The other pilots considered this and decided Quatre was right.

"So what do we do then? Ask that pilot to join us? Come with us back to the PeaceMillion?" Duo asked, looking somewhat doubtful.

"I don't see why not. It would be good to have another ally." Trowa said with a shrug. Wufei scoffed with annoyance, he didn't really want to deal with the possibility of any more people pushing him to be part of the "team".

"Ok so we all agree right, we ask that pilot to join us?" Quatre asked. The others all agreed, Wufei after some reluctance.

"Ok so who's gonna ask 'em?" Duo asked. After some debate the group decided that Quatre would be the one to ask.

Aly sat, waiting patiently in the calm quiet of the cockpit of her gundam as she and the other pilots rested from the battle. She closed her eyes and thought to herself. She knew that the other pilots were discussing something at that moment because she had heard the blip of a com-link going on throughout all of their gundams. However, they had it connected as a private line so she couldn't hear anything.

Aly waited for a long time. She was getting uncomfortable not hearing anything. She wondered what exactly they were talking about. She had a feeling they were talking about her because they had mentioned her several times during the battle. Aly had to refrain from laughing every time they'd referred to her as a guy during the battle.

Aly was just about to doze off when the com-link in her gundam started beeping. She quickly hit a few keys so that her visual link wouldn't show up on their screens, but she could still receive visual links from them. She turned on the line and heard a voice she knew well.

"Umm, hello?" Quatre's soft voice asked. Aly suddenly wished she'd remembered the code to disguise her voice. She used her acting skills to force her voice to sound deeper, but not fake. After all, they thought she was a guy.

"Good Afternoon." Aly responded. She hoped her voice impression was convincing enough.

"On behalf of my fellow pilots, and myself, I would like to ask you something..." Quatre began with confidence. Aly waited for him to continue, guessing he wanted to know who she was and where she had come from.

"My comrades and I would like to know if you would like to join us, fight with us and bring your mobile suit to our shuttle, the PeaceMillion...?" Quatre continued. That Aly hadn't really expected. In a way it made sense that they would offer that though. Aly thought for a moment, deciding just how to respond.

"That is very kind of you to offer. However, I'm afraid I can't accept..." Aly said carefully. She heard a slight murmuring sound. Quatre was obviously talking to the other pilots on a different line at the same time and they were whispering something to him.

"Alright then, we understand if you can not join us, but might I ask why?" Quatre asked politely. Aly paused once again before answering.

"There will come a time in the future when I will join you, but not now." Aly responded. There were more quiet voices, and then Quatre spoke again.

"Ok if you say that you will one day join us, might we ask what your name is and where you're from?" Quatre asked.

"And who built that awesome gundam?" Duo yelled over the com-link. Aly tried not to smile. She forced herself to be serious again.

"Right now that information is irrelevant. Just know that I will one day join you, that is all that you need to know for now...we'll meet again soon..." Aly said, then cut the connection. She flared the thrusters of her gundam and sped off into space, leaving them there to ponder what she'd said.

Quatre sat back in his seat thinking. He watched as the mysterious, icy looking gundam sped off suddenly.

'I wonder how long it will be before we do come across each other again...' Quatre thought to himself. He looked up at his middle screen. "So guys, what do you think?" Quatre asked. The others were all silent, obviously wondering about the new pilot as well.

'Our new ally is an enigma...'

-End of Chapter 3-

So what did everybody think? Was that battle scene all that bad? Sorry I took so long to get that chapter up...serious writers block for that part, should go a lot more smoothly after this next chapter. Oh yeah I also wanted to mention my other fic "Always There For You" if any of you are reading that then you'll be happy to know I got the next chapter up. Thanks for reading!  
Don't forget to review! Ja ne! 


	4. Ch 3: Watch Your Back

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or it's characters. I own the characters not from the original Anime show and OAV, so if any one wants to borrow any of my characters-they have to ask...probably wouldn't want to though.

Author's Notes: Yea the next chapter! Any one who reads this and speaks French, please forgive me if any of the parts written in French seem odd...Thank you!  
'...' are thoughts. For rest of author's notes, see end of page. With that said, on with the episode! Err-uh...Chapter...

A New Ally (1) Chapter 3: Watch Your Back

Year A.C. 195,

Somewhere in space between the L6 and L7 Colonies, Aly was sitting in the cockpit of the shuttle she had waiting a ways away from the battle. Her gundam was safely strapped down in the cargo hold. She entered the coordinates for the L7 Colony entrance she wanted and turned on the shuttle's autopilot. She propped her feet up on the control panel, crossing her ankles.

Aly crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes. She found herself thinking once again about Duo, Quatre, and Trowa for the umpteenth time that week.

'Duo...' Aly thought, smiling to herself as she thought about all of the fun times they'd had together. She let out her breath slowly. She opened her eyes and looked at her watch.

'I guess I have time for a quick little nap...' Aly closed her eyes again and dozed off with the memory of when she'd first met Duo lingering on her mind...

Year A.C. 187, Fall-L2 Colony...

It was the second month of the school year. All of the students attending Evergreen Academy were just leaving the school grounds for the day. All the girls were wearing dark green, plaid skirts that came just above the knee as opposed to the black pants the boys wore. Both the male and female students wore white button up dress shirts under dark green vests and a black jacket over that. One child in particular was walking down the sidewalk humming to herself. She had her light brown hair held back with silver hair clips. She had on a small, square-ish, brown backpack and held two small textbooks in arms. Her school uniform jacket was slung over her left arm as she continued homeward.

While the girl was walking, she stopped as she noticed someone coming out of Maxwell's Church, across the street. She studied the person closely, seeing that it was a boy about her age with a very unique feature; his hair was pulled back in a long braid. The boy sat down on the steps of the church and began eating a green apple. The girl, having the friendly personality that she did, decided to tell the boy how she thought his hairstyle was really neat. She quickly walked over to the church steps. The boy looked up curiously to see the girl standing in front of him. She smiled a friendly smile.

"Hello." She said politely. The boy raised an eyebrow, then answered.

"Hmhewy..." He said through a mouth full of apple. He quickly finished chewing then repeated himself. "Hey..." He said, his mouth no longer full of apple. The girl giggled lightly.

"Je vraiment aime vos cheveux!" I love your hair! The girl said with a smile.  
The boy gave her a quizzical look. The girl tilted her head to the side in wonderment.

"Que? Est-ce que vous ne moi comprenes pas?" The girl asked. The boy shook his head with an apologetic look.

"Sorry, I don't speak whatever language you're talking in." The boy said with a sad smile. The girl gasped as she realized her mistake.

"Oh! Je suis désolée!" She exclaimed. The girl realized she hadn't spoken in English again. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed. The boy smiled at her.

"So you do speak English?" He asked with a grin. The girl covered her mouth and giggled lightly.

"Yes I do. I'm so sorry, my father and I just moved here from a colony where they talked only in French, and sometimes I talk in French by accident." The girl replied. The boy nodded understandingly.

"It's ok, it sounded pretty-even if I didn't understand it." The boy said with a laugh. The girl giggled again.

"So what were you saying anyway?" The boy asked. The girl shook her head quickly, as if snapping back to attention.

"Oh yes, I was saying that I love your hair." The girl said, smiling again. The boy grinned broadly.

"Really? Thanks!" He said, beaming. The boy thought for a moment and set his apple core down next to himself on the steps.

"So, what's your name anyway?" The boy asked.

"Natalya, Natalya Tayeari-Shadows. Or just Aly." The girl answered, flashing a smile. The boy raised an eyebrow.

"Tayeari...like that Foreign Minister Tayeari guy...?" The boy asked. The girl furrowed her brow.

"Yes, he's my father." Natalya said. The boy made a thoughtful sound, then grinned again.

"Nice to meet you Natalya, the name's Duo." The boy said, holding out a hand. Natalya shifted her books to her left hand and shook hands with him.

"Nice to meet you Duo." Natalya said politely. She let go of his hand and put her books back into both hands. Natalya looked at where the boy sat on the steps and thought for a moment.

"Do you mind if I sit down?" Natalya asked, gesturing toward the steps Duo was sitting on.

"No, not at all." Duo said, scooting over a bit. Natalya smiled gratefully.

"Thank you so much." She said, setting down her books on the step. She slid off her backpack and set it next to her books, laying her school uniform jacket on top of it. She turned around and swept her skirt beneath herself, sitting down gracefully. She turned to Duo and clasped her hands together in her lap.

"So, you go to Evergreen?" Duo asked, eyeing the patch on Natalya's vest.

"Oh, Yeah. I've been going to there for three weeks." Natalya replied. "Where do you go to school?"

"I umm, don't really go to school...Father Maxwell and Sister Helen teach me." Duo said, glancing behind himself, inside the church.

"Oh, well... do you like them?"

"Yeah, they're like family..." Duo turned back towards Natalya.

"Oh. What about your real family? Do you like them?" Duo got a sad look on his face.

"I don't know my real family...I was an orphan, and then I was taken in by Father Maxwell..." Duo said quietly. Natalya shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." She said softly, looking down at her hands. Duo shook his head.

"Don't worry about it." He said reassuringly. "What about you? Do you like your family?"

"Yes, my father and I get along really well...he's the only family I have."

"Oh. So...What brings you two to L2?" Duo asked, his grin returning.

"Some Foreign Minister business my father has to do with the colony leader."

"Oh. So do you guys move around a lot?"

"Yeah, all the time. It gets kinda annoying; I don't have much time to make friends..." Natalya said with a sigh.

"Yeah, I see what you mean..." Duo said, nodding understandingly.

"Oh well. At least I get to meet lots of nice people." Natalya said with a smile. Duo nodded. Natalya glanced at her watch and gasped.

"Oh shoot! I have to get home before my father gets home or else he'll worry." Natalya exclaimed. "I'm sorry I have to go now..." She said apologetically. Duo shrugged.

"Hey don't worry about it." He said, waving it off. "Go on, get home. Wouldn't want you to get in trouble or anything." Secretly, Duo wished that she could stay.

"Thanks." She said, standing up and dusting herself off. Duo nodded. Natalya picked up her jacket, backpack, and books.

"Umm, would you mind if I come back here tomorrow, after school?" Natalya asked.

"Sure, that'd be cool." Duo said, grinning happily.

"Great! I'll see you tomorrow!"

"For sure. See you tomorrow."

"Ok, bye Duo!" Natalya said with a wave as she hurried down the steps. She turned back once to wave, then dashed down the street towards her house. Duo watched until Natalya had disappeared down the street, then he picked up his apple core off the step and disappeared into the church.

Aly smiled at the memory of a young Duo. After that day when she'd first met him, she had come back every day to hang out with Duo. Sometimes, they would go somewhere other than Maxwell's church. Aly found it amazing that they hung out together every day, no matter what...everyday up until Aly moved that is.

Even after Aly and her father moved to the L9 Colony, she and Duo still talked to each other. They sent letters to each other all the time, and called each other once in a while. Aly remembered when she heard about the Maxwell Church Massacre...she was so worried about Duo. She didn't hear from him for the longest time. When she finally heard from him again, she received terrible news. Duo told her that Sister Helen and Father Maxwell were gone.

Aly had always wondered where Duo was staying after Maxwell's church was destroyed. She never asked really, or else the subject never came up. She still couldn't believe that that whole time he had been training to be a gundam pilot.

"Hmm, who knew..." Aly whispered aloud. 'Duo, my friend...it was nice to see you again...' She shifted in her seat, put her feet back on the floor, and glanced into the view screen in front of herself. She saw that she was approaching the colony entrance and hit a few keys to slow down the shuttle.

"Home again..." Aly whispered to herself. 'Wonder if Daddy's back.' She thought with a small smile.

One week later, in the middle of the L7 Colony:

Aly Tayeari-Shadows was roller-blading on the sidewalk of one of the main city streets on L7. It was about 6:00 in the morning on a Saturday, so the street was deserted, with the exception of a passing car every few minutes. Later in the day, as it got closer to 8:00 am, the street would be covered with people and busy with traffic.

Aly had on all the safety gear needed for skating. She wore the wrist guards, helmet, and such under extreme protest; her father made her wear them. Aly had bud headphones in her ears so they wouldn't get in the way of her helmet. She was zoning out, listening to one of her favorite rock stations on her mini radio, which was in the pocket of her jacket.

Unknown to her at the time, someone was watching and following Aly. That person was carrying a gun and had very bad intentions. But, little did that person know, he was also being watched.

A young man around the age of 15 with unruly chocolate brown hair and dark blue eyes was silently crouching a ways in front of where Aly was skating. The young man was none other than Heero Yuy himself.

Heero silently followed the assassin sent to kill the Foreign Minister's daughter. The assassin had no idea he was being followed. He pulled out an automatic with a silencer, preparing to shoot at the Foreign Minister's daughter. Heero pulled out his own gun and took aim at the assassin. Heero had the intention to injure, but not kill. Heero moved into the middle of the deserted street so he could get a better view of both Aly and the assassin.

Aly saw Heero standing in the road, aiming a gun at something. She also noticed a dark car speeding towards him.

"Hey you! Look out!" She yelled to Heero. Heero got a confused look on his face. Aly, realizing he didn't know about the approaching danger, ripped out her headphones, tossed aside her radio, and rushed towards him. She skated over to Heero at a reckless speed, pushed him over, and rolled him with her out of the way just in time. Heero and Aly were now both lying on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, Aly lying on top of Heero. The car screeched to a halt, allowing the person who'd been attempting to assassinate Aly to jump in the car.

The car sped off just as quickly as it had stopped. Whoever it was obviously worried about what would happen now that they'd been discovered.

"Are you ok?" Aly asked a very shocked Heero. Heero, finding himself looking up into Aly's eyes didn't answer.

Heero suddenly came back to reality, mentally kicking himself for not watching his own back.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Heero answered monotonously. Aly had noticed the shocked look he'd had on his face. It was strange to see after the stoic expression his face had held when she'd first seen him. Heero went back to looking emotionless, so Aly brushed her thoughts off. She figured he had just been a little shaken up.

Aly suddenly realized the embarrassing position they were in and quickly got up, dusting herself off. She turned away to hide her embarrassment and pretended to be looking for something.

"You didn't have to do that you know. I could've gotten out of the way in time" Heero said, now also standing up. He picked up the gun he'd dropped and checked it. He slid it under his jacket, out of sight.

"How grateful some people can be..." Aly thought sarcastically. She turned back towards Heero. "Whatever. What were you doing out in the middle of the street anyway?" Aly asked, raising an eyebrow the slightest bit. Anybody else would feel threatened by someone who had just shown they had a gun, but for some reason Aly didn't feel threatened by this person. Heero wondered if he should answer or simply not say anything.

"I was trying to stop an attempted assassination." Heero said in his expressionless way. He looked around for any trace of more assassins, but didn't see any.

"Oh, I guess that's a pretty good reason then..." Aly said. Heero remained silent. He picked up Aly's radio and held it up.

"Is this yours?" He asked.

"Umm, yeah. Thanks." Aly said, taking it from him. She inspected it to see if it was damaged at all from when she'd tossed it on the ground. Aly was relieved to see it wasn't broken. Aly turned and looked down the road.

"Do you think they're coming back...?" Aly asked, turning back around. She got a confused look on her face and looked for Heero. She couldn't see him anywhere. He'd simply disappeared.

"Who was that guy...?" Aly said softly. An automated wind blew past her and she shivered slightly. 'Maybe I should get back home and check on my father...' Aly pulled a gun that she kept tucked into the back of her jeans and checked to see if it was loaded. When she knew it was loaded, she tucked it back into the back of her jeans and pulled her jacket over it. Aly took one last look around before she sped off towards home.

Heero sat, watching Aly from the fire escape of the building next to where he'd nearly been hit by a car. He had decided not to stick around just in case Aly asked more questions. He felt that she'd be ok, now that she knew to keep on guard. Heero also knew that Aly was armed. He'd felt the gun underneath her jacket when they'd rolled out of the way of the car.

Heero waited until Aly left, then he headed to the shuttle port.

-The Previous Day on the PeaceMillion-

Heero looked up from the wires in the left shoulder of his gundam. He'd been doing some repair work from their last battle. He heard a beeping from inside the cockpit. He flipped down from his perch on the Wing Zero's shoulder and onto the platform that led inside the cockpit. Heero climbed into the cockpit and pulled up his mini screen. He read over the assignment for his next mission.

"Hey Heero, what's the news?" Duo asked, looking up from his own gundam. Heero and Duo were the only one's in the cargo hold at the time.

"Hn...I have to go to the L7 Colony and...What?" Heero momentarily got a confused look. "Watch the Foreign Minister's daughter and stop a possible assassination attempt?" Heero was surprised to say the least. No one had ever made an assassination attempt on the Foreign Minister or his daughter. That was why they didn't have bodyguards. Heero figured it must have been serious business because Dr. J. was having him sent on this assignment; him of all people.

"Lucky you." Duo said, more to himself than to Heero.

"Why do you say that?" Heero asked, stepping out of the cockpit of his gundam.

"Because she's awesome! She's funny, she's pretty..." Duo began.

"So you would want to go simply because you find her attractive and mildly-amusing?" Heero said with dismay evident on his face.

"No, she's really nice too..." Duo replied, thinking.

"You know her?" Heero asked with disbelief.

"Yeah we go way back. I'll have to tell ya about it sometime. I wish I could get the excuse to go see her..." Duo said with a smug smile.

"Hn. Well regardless of her personality, it's a mission, not a social call." Heero said pointedly.

"Well, you're still lucky though..." Duo said with a shrug. Heero just brushed off everything Duo had said.

"Mission accepted..." Heero said. He immediately began to make arrangements to leave so he could get to L7 by that evening.

-End Of Chapter 5-

Author's Notes: Hey what did every one think of that chapter? I need to know what people think of this story so far so I'll know whether or not to continue posting chapters or not. So please let me know in your reviews!  
Arigato!  
-AlyRain Be Continued...

-End of Chapter 3-

Ok, the next chapter or two will have some more new characters and will most likely be in flash back mode. Also, some of the new characters that are introduced you will not find out much about until later on in the story... there's a reason for this, but I can't give anything away-hehe:) Oh yeah, I might do previews of the next chapter at the end of the previous ones, but it depends on if people want me to or not. So please let me know!  
Please Review! Thanks,  
-AlyRain 


	5. Ch 4: Join The Group

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing! Wish I did though...But don't we all?

A New Ally (1) Ch. 4: Join The Group

A few hours after the assassination attempt on the Foreign Minister's daughter, Aly was in the living room of her house. She was sitting, curled up on one of the leather easy chairs, watching the news on the big-screen TV. Aly wasn't really watching the news, more like staring blankly at the screen while in deep thought. She still wondered whom in the world and colonies that mysterious guy she'd seen that morning was. Mystery Man, as she'd come to call him.

'He was so mysterious...and so unemotional...' To say the least, Aly felt sorry for the guy. She was very good at knowing everything about a person by first glance; she'd been trained to do so. Aly had figured out that the guy was one to suppress all emotions for fear that it might affect whatever the person was doing. Although her thoughts were mostly focused on finding out the identity of the teenage boy she'd had an encounter with, another thought troubled her even more. Aly was still pretty shaken up by what the guy had said. '"I was trying to stop an attempted assassination"...' Those words Mystery Man had said still haunted her. He had given Aly a strange look and even though he hadn't directly said it, Aly knew the guy meant that she was the one who he had been trying to protect.

Aly was so deep in thought that she didn't hear her father enter the room.

"Is the news that interesting?" Foreign Minister Tayeari asked.

"Hmm? Oh, no...I was just thinking." Aly said, snapping back into focus.

"Oh. What were you thinking about?" Mr. Tayeari asked, sitting down in another easy chair.

"Umm. Well, something strange happened when I was out skating this morning..."

"Really, like what?" Mr. Tayeari said, looking intrigued.

"Well there was this guy standing in the middle of the street, and this car came up and tried to run him over... I managed to get him out of the way in time and the people just drove off," Aly snapped her fingers for effect, "just like that." Aly said. The Foreign Minister raised his eyebrows.

"Then he said the weirdest thing...it really freaked me out..." Aly said, mentally shuddering from the memory.

"What did he say?" Mr. Tayeari asked.

"Well I asked him what he was doing in the middle of the street and he said he was trying to stop an attempted assassination. The way he looked at me when he said it, I knew he was talking about me..." Aly answered. Mr. Tayeari looked concerned.

"Were you hurt? Did someone try to hurt you?" Tayeari asked, looking very worried.

"No, the people just took off. I was going to ask the guy who the assassins were and what their reasons were, but the guy disappeared." Aly's eyebrows knitted together in thoughtfulness. "You don't think it has anything to do with the I.A. do you?" Aly asked, suddenly thinking of the possibility.

"No, I think it was just a way for someone to try to get to me..." The Foreign Minister said gravely.

"Well it's nothing to worry about, someone was out there to help me. And besides, even if they aren't there next time; I know to watch my back now..." Aly said, trying to calm her father's nerves. He nodded in agreement.

"Oh, I almost forgot why I came in here. There's another attack about to happen, they're after L9 this time. You've got to stop them from getting too close. Aly it's time for you to join up with the other-", Tayeari looked around to make sure no one else was around before continuing, "Gundam Pilots. You said the last time you helped them out in battle they'd offered for you to join up with them." The Foreign Minister stood up and got the look of a general who was planning battle tactics. "Well you are going to take them up on their offer now, it's time for them to meet you." The Foreign Minister said, looking down at his daughter who was looking enthusiastic.

"Ok so how do I find them then?" Aly asked.

"The PeaceMillion is currently over in the L2 Colony area. Find them and tell them that you're ready to join forces for the upcoming battle, they should already know about it as well...Are you ready for it?" Mr. Tayeari questioned.

"When do I leave?" Aly asked, standing up.

-Meanwhile back on the PeaceMillion-

Quatre floated into the "leisure area" of the PeaceMillion (The room where the Gundam Pilots are always eating and playing chess and stuff). He was relieved to see Heero sitting at the table, reading something on his laptop and sipping a drink.

"Heero I'm glad I found you. There's news that a fleet of Mobile Dolls is headed for L9, they're going to be there by this time tomorrow." Quatre said as Heero looked up.

"Are we heading over there now?" Heero asked.

"Well, heading in that direction. The PeaceMillion is going to stop in between L8 and L9, that way it's out of the line of fire." Quatre replied. Heero nodded.

"Alright then, do all of the gundams have their ammunition restocked?" Heero asked.

"Yep."

"Good."

Quatre turned and left after that to go inform the others.

-A few hours later-

"Quatre there's something coming up on radar..." Noin said while looking at the screen. A beeping sound came from the radar system

"Well, put it on the view screen if you can." Quatre said, drifting over. Noin nodded and hit a few keys on the control panel. Howard had walked over as well. A gundam came up on the screen. Quatre recognized it as the mysterious new gundam from their last battle. Quatre and the others heard the blip of a com-link connection coming on.

"Hello?" A voice asked over the com-link. It was the pilot of that new gundam. Quatre leaned towards the mic.

"Hello, this is Quatre Reberba Winner from the PeaceMillion. How may I help you?" Quatre asked, recognizing the voice of the mysterious gundam pilot from the previous battle.

"I've decided to take you up on your offer, that is if it still stands." The pilot stated plainly. Quatre and Noin shared a look. Trowa walked in and raised an eyebrow.

"What's going on?" Trowa asked, looking over Noin's shoulder at the view screen.

"The pilot of that one gundam who helped you guys out at the last battle's decided to join us, wants to know if we're still willing to let 'em." Howard answered.

"Oh." Trowa said simply.

"I'm going to tell the pilot to bring their gundam on into the cargo hold." Quatre said, looking around for any disapproval. He didn't see any.

"Yes, our offer still stands, we will open the hatch to the cargo hold now. My comrades and I will meet you there." Quatre said, hitting a button to open the hatch.

"Alright then." The pilot of the new gundam answered. Quatre cut off the line and turned to Trowa. "We better go round up the others, let them know that we've got a visitor." Quatre said. Trowa nodded. He and Quatre left in search of Duo, Wufei, and Heero.

Once all of the pilots reached the cargo hold, they found that the new gundam pilot had already arrived. The original gundam pilots all stood on the platform overlooking the cargo hold and watched as a figure wearing a flight suit stepped out onto the platform that went around the entire cargo hold.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up." Duo said as the flight suit clad pilot grasped a tow bar was pulled over to the others. The pilot stood a few feet in front of Duo and the others who had formed a semi circle.

"Ok, so what's your name?" Duo asked, right away wanting to know the pilot's identity. The pilot took off its helmet and held it at its side.

"I think we already know each other Duo." The pilot said with a smirk.

Aly had entered the cargo hold of the PeaceMillion. She got out of her gundam and stepped onto the platform that went around the entire cargo hold.  
She could see the original five gundam pilots standing near the sliding airlock door that led to the rest of the PeaceMillion. She took a deep breath before going over to them. They still didn't know exactly who she was. She could see Duo, Quatre, and Trowa standing over there and felt more relaxed. It was the other two guys, the ones she didn't know that made her a little uneasy.

Aly grabbed a tow bar and let it pull her over to the other gundam pilots. As she got closer, she recognized one of the two people she didn't know as the guy whom she had seen that morning. It was the guy who'd been there to stop the assassins. Aly let go of the tow bar so she was standing a little ways in front of the group of pilots who had formed a semi circle. As soon as she had set her feet down, Duo started asking questions. It wasn't all that surprising though.

"Ok, so what's your name?" Duo asked. Aly took off her flight suit helmet and held it at her side. She couldn't help but smirk.

"I think we already know each other Duo." Aly said simply.

Duo's jaw nearly dropped to the floor; all the other pilots were equally shocked.

"A-A-Aly? It was you the whole time?" Duo nearly shrieked.

"Yes, it was me." Aly answered.

"A woman?" Wufei asked with disbelief clearly evident in his tone of voice. Duo, Trowa, and Quatre all noticed as Aly tensed up. Aly had been raised by her father and it had caused her to develop an extreme intolerance for chauvinism. Wufei had annoyed Aly and she wanted to make him eat his words. However, she decided against saying or doing anything, realizing that she would simply be giving in to her anger.

Wufei made a "hmmph" sound and didn't say anything else. Quatre spoke up suddenly to change the subject.

"So Aly, why didn't you tell us it was you the whole time?" Quatre asked, still amazed. Aly turned away from Wufei, immediately got rid of her anger, and looked at Quatre.

"The time wasn't right for me to join you." Aly answered simply.

"I still can't believe this! We, I mean Quatre and I, both knew you were supposed to pilot the Wing Zero and that didn't work out, but another gundam?" Duo said while shaking his head in confusion and disbelief.

"What?" Wufei and Heero asked at the same time.

"Oh, that's right; you guys weren't there at the time. Well, remember when I told you about some person coming to inspect the PeaceMillion?" Quatre asked. Heero and Wufei both nodded once.

"Yeah, well it turned out that Aly was the one who came on inspection duty." Quatre explained.

"To give you the short version-Aly and I are old buddies, haven't seen each other in a while, she told us that she was supposed to pilot the Wing Zero, didn't work out-factory blew up, turns out she also knew Trowa and Quatre from way back when, she left, didn't mention anything else about another gundam." Duo said quickly. The others all nodded.

"Nicely put." Aly said. She looked slightly amused by the whole situation.

"Thanks." Duo said with a grin. Quatre looked like he had just remembered something.

"Oh, yeah. Umm... Aly, this is Heero Yuy, and that's Chang Wufei. Heero, Wufei, This is Aly Tayeari-Shadows, the daughter of the Foreign Minister Tayeari." Quatre said, making introductions.

"Nice to meet you." Aly said with mild enthusiasm. Heero and Wufei simply grunted what could be called a reply. Aly looked carefully at Heero. She realized he must have been the one Duo was talking about when he asked if she knew a Heero Yuy. Duo yawned slightly. Aly decided to ask about Heero later, she could tell that Duo was tired before he had yawned.

"Well, as exciting as this all is, I'm going to get some sleep before the big battle tomorrow." Duo said.

"I agree, we should all get some rest. Besides, there will be plenty more time to talk tomorrow"  
Quatre said with a warm smile. "Aly I'll show you your room."

"Ok let me just grab my duffel bag." Aly said as she went back over to her gundam. She returned, with a midnight blue duffle bag, the strap over her right shoulder. Her right hand was at the bottom of the strap, keeping the duffle bag at her side.

Aly followed the others out of the cargo hold. She ended up floating beside Heero for a while and thought of something to bring up that would possibly answer a question she had on her mind. Aly spoke quietly to Heero.

"Been stalked by any cars lately?" Aly asked with a slight smirk. Heero made no response to her remark, so Aly didn't say anything else. In his mind though, Heero had found Aly's little remark somewhat amusing.

Once they had arrived in the sleeping quarters of the PeaceMillion, Quatre showed Aly her room. He also informed her that she would be bunking with Noin and one of the MS technicians. Quatre said he wasn't really sure who the other girl was, but he figured she would introduce herself if Noin didn't introduce her.

Aly had no complaints; she wouldn't mind sharing a room. She hoped that she and her roommates would get along well so that she would have some people to talk to. Aly already knew Noin, whom she thought seemed nice enough. She just hoped the other girl was easy to get along with.

Aly walked into the room and set her duffel bag on the bottom bunk of one of the beds that looked like it wasn't being used. Quatre, Duo, and Trowa quickly said goodnight, then turned and left. Aly watched as they disappeared around a corner a ways down the hall before she shut the door.

-End Of Chapter 4-

Author's Notes: "What will happen when the original gundam pilots finally come face to face with their new ally? How will their new ally react to some of them? Find out in the next chapter!"

Ok peeps, thanks for reading my story! I appreciate all of the reviews I've gotten. Oh yeah, special thanks to Jeanette L.- my first reviewer. Domo arigato for all your support!

If anyone is wondering how in the heck to pronounce the foreign Minister's last name, it's pronounced as the following: Tay-year-ee.

Ne-wayz thanks again to ALL my readers and reviewers! Don't forget to review!  
-AlyRain 


	6. Ch 5: New Acquaintances and Mysteries

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.

A New Ally (1) Ch. 5: New Acquaintances and More Mysteries

Aly was sitting on the edge of her bunk, just about to fall back and fall asleep when the door opened. Two people entered the room laughing and chattering. Aly looked up curiously. She couldn't make out anything other than the people's silhouettes, which were outlined by the dim light of the hallway. They half floated, half walked all the way in the door. The second one, the shorter one of the two, gently closed the door. Aly could see them completely now. She recognized the taller one as Noin and figured the other girl was the technician that Quatre had mentioned. Noin halted her laughter suddenly when she noticed Aly.

"Aly? What are you doing here?" Noin asked, looking surprised to see her. Aly smiled slightly.

"Came to help out the other pilots with the upcoming battle." Aly answered. Noin nodded.

"Oh, I see...Hey wait a minute, so that means you're the pilot of the other gundam Skye and I saw in the cargo hold...?" Noin said as she pieced things together. Aly nodded.

"Well this is great! I guess we get to be bunkmates for a while; which means I get the chance to get to know you better." Noin said enthusiastically. Aly simply nodded again. She glanced towards the other girl in the room who was now leaning against the door with her arms folded across her chest. Aly looked her over carefully. She had short blonde hair and hazel-green eyes. She looked about Aly's age and was about an inch or two shorter than Aly was. Aly slid off her bed and drifted over to her. She held out her hand in a polite gesture.

"Hi. I'm Aly; I don't believe we've met before..." Aly said slowly, not sure if this girl was the type of person who would want to get to know her. The girl quickly stood up straight and smiled broadly.

"Nice to meetcha Aly. My name's Skye. I'm one of the Mobile Suit technicians here on the PeaceMillion." The girl said in a bubbly and friendly tone as she shook Aly's hand. Skye looked happy that Aly had made the effort to talk to her. She had been feeling somewhat left out when Noin had been talking with Aly.

"Nice to meet you as well Skye." Aly answered.

"Well, now that we're all aquatinted...can we go to sleep?" Skye asked with a yawn. Noin and Aly laughed lightly.

"Sounds good to me." Aly said. Noin nodded.

"I agree." Noin added as she drifted over to the bunk Aly had been sitting on and pulled herself up onto the top bunk. Skye climbed onto the top bunk of the one opposite of Aly and Noin's and slid under the covers. Aly switched off the light and floated over to her bed. She pulled back the sheets and laid down. She pulled the sheets up under her arms and closed her eyes. Skye leaned over the side of her bunk and peered down at Aly.

"Hey Aly!" Skye whispered. Aly opened her eyes slowly and glanced up at Skye's figure outlined in shadows. She rolled onto her side and propped herself up on one elbow.

"Yeah?" Aly asked.

"Don't take it the wrong way that I wanted to go to sleep. I'm just really tired. I didn't mean to sound rude or anything." Skye whispered. Aly shrugged slightly.

"I wasn't offended. It's completely understandable that you might be tired." Aly whispered back.

"Ok, just checking." Skye said. "G'night."

"Good night." Aly said as she lay back down. Skye settled back onto her bunk and closed her eyes. Aly could tell by Skye's heavy breathing that she was already fast asleep. She could also hear Noin's rhythmic breathing and knew that she was asleep as well.

Aly lay for a while with her eyes closed and thought. In her mind she replayed the scene of when she had first been introduced to the rest of the gundam pilots. She figured she'd get along with all of them well enough; well, maybe not Wufei. But then again, first impressions weren't always the best ones to go by. Aly decided she would have more time to think about those things in the morning. She rolled onto her side and fell into a light sleep.

Aly awoke and glanced at the neon numbered clock on the desk that was against the wall in front of her. It was about four-ten in the morning. Aly had been waking up off and on for the past few hours. She kept trying to sleep so she would be well rested for the upcoming battle, but sleep kept evading her. Aly finally gave up on trying to get back to sleep and pushed back the sheets. She swung her legs over the side of the bunk and sat up slowly.

After she had listened to make sure Noin and Skye were still asleep before she stood up and drifted towards the door. She opened the door and slipped out without a sound. The hallway was dimly lit with red night-lights so that there would be enough light to see, but not enough to hurt people's eyes. Aly grabbed a tow bar and was pulled down the hallway. She headed for the room Quatre had mentioned everyone hung out in when they had any free time; the "Gundam Pilot Commons" as he had called it.

When Aly reached the door, she pushed the button and the door slid back. She drifted in and looked about the dim, red-lit room as the door slid shut behind her. She noticed Heero sitting at the table, typing on his laptop. He looked up when he heard the door open and close. He had an irritated look on his face as he noticed Aly.

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't think anyone else would be up." Aly said. "I didn't mean to bother you... I'll leave." Aly started to turn around and drift out the door when Heero spoke up.

"No it's ok; I was just aggravated with my computer." Heero said monotonously.

"Oh." Aly said simply. She felt somewhat uncomfortable and tried to cover it up by starting a conversation.

"So what're you working on?" Aly asked. Heero hesitated before telling her. At first he wasn't sure if he should tell Aly. After some thought, Heero realized that if they were going to be allies, he shouldn't keep something from her that he would tell his other fellow gundam pilots.

"I'm trying to hack into the OZ headquarters main system and get more information on the mobile dolls we fought in the last battle in case we go up against them again."

"I see. Any luck?" Aly asked casually.

"That's what I was frustrated about; I can't figure out one of these damn codes they have." Heero hated feeling like he couldn't do something. He was always successful and he couldn't stand the fact that a computer of all things was beating him. Heero felt like an idiot after he'd said that. He never admitted when he couldn't do something.

"Maybe I can help." Aly said as she drifted over.

"You know anything about hacking?" Heero asked. Aly stood next to him and peered at the screen.

"A thing or two." Aly said with a shrug. "May I?" She asked as she pointed at the laptop.

"You can try." Heero never let anyone touch his laptop, yet he figured there wasn't a lot of harm Aly could do. And who knew, maybe she could help him out. Aly leaned over Heero to reach the keyboard and typed swiftly. The computer beeped and the screen showed a progress bar that said the information from the OZ database was being downloaded. Aly stood up straight.

"There you go." Aly said as she made a 'have at it' gesture towards the laptop. Heero had watched her type in the codes and wondered why he hadn't thought of the same thing.

"How'd you figure out what sequence to use?" Heero asked as he watched the progress bar. It flashed that it would take five minutes for the rest of the information to download. Aly shrugged.

"Well, thanks." Heero said awkwardly. He wasn't really used to thanking people and thanking Aly felt alien to him.

'Hrm, so he does have the ability to be grateful...' Aly thought as she remembered how Heero hadn't even thanked her for saving his life the previous morning.

"No problem." Aly said as she drifted over to the built in-the-wall mini-refrigerator and got herself a bottle of water. She floated back over to the table and sat down across from Heero.

"So what're you doing up so late?" Aly asked as she took a drink of her water. She wasn't really into talking to strangers, but the silence was even more discomforting. Heero wasn't really into being conversational either, but he didn't really seem to mind talking to Aly. Heero pondered over this momentarily before answering. He finally concluded that the awkward silence must have been getting to him as well.

"I just haven't been able to get much sleep lately." Heero said. Aly nodded understandingly.

"What about you? Why are you up late?" Heero asked.

"I dunno, I guess I'm nervous that I have to stay here and work with all these people I've just met." Aly admitted. It was Heero's turn to nod.

"It must make you feel uncomfortable." Heero said. Aly nodded again.

"Yeah, I think that Wufei guy really doesn't like me." Aly said slowly.

"Wufei doesn't like anyone." Heero said simply. He had a half smirk, half smile as he said that. Aly figured he must have found it amusing somehow. It was the first time she had seen any real expression on Heero's face. She smiled slightly; glad to see he wasn't really as emotionless as she had originally thought him to be.

"You find it amusing that he doesn't get along with anyone?" Aly asked.

"I just find it amusing that there's someone who's more arrogant and stubborn than I am." Heero said with the same half smirk, half smile as before. There was a gap of silence between Aly and Heero. Aly tilted her head slightly at Heero in curiosity.

"So why are you talking to me? I mean no offense, but you kinda struck me as the non-conversational type." Aly said carefully, trying not to be offensive. Heero didn't answer. Aly figured she must have said the wrong thing.

"Sorry. I didn't mean sound rude or make false assumptions." Aly said. Heero shook his head quickly.

"No, you weren't being rude at all. What you said is true I'm not really one for having conversations." Heero said.

"Then why are you talking to me?" Aly asked with a quirked eyebrow. For the first time since Heero could remember, he was at a loss for words. Why was he talking to some girl he didn't know? He had just met her, yet there he was, joking with her. Heero never joked with anyone. He noticed that Aly was waiting for an answer so he thought of a reply.

"I don't know. But you don't seem like the conversational type either." Heero said slowly. Aly tilted her head back to its normal vertical position and lowered her eyebrow.

"You're right. I'm not. I usually don't like being a conversationalist unless I'm talking to someone I know well." Aly replied with a shrug. Heero nodded.

"I think it's better to be talking to you then to be hated." Aly said with the hint of a smile. Heero nodded.

"Yeah." Heero said it as though he were pondering the same thing. There was another long pause of silence between Aly and Heero then. Neither of them could think of anything to say. Heero's laptop beeped again, signaling that it was done downloading the information from the OZ database. Heero and Aly were both secretly relieved because it meant they wouldn't have to worry about the awkward silence anymore. Heero started scrolling through the information. Aly floated around the table again and stood behind Heero to see the screen.

"Hn." Heero murmured thoughtfully.

"'Hn.' What?" Aly asked.

"Well those mobile dolls we fought the other day, they're nothing like the OZ mobile dolls." Hero said slowly.

"What do you mean?" Aly asked. Heero pointed at one corner of the screen where there was a picture of a mobile doll.

"This is a picture of one of the mobile dolls from the last battle. I got it from the camera on the Wing Zero." Heero began.

"Yeah...?" Aly said, urging him to continue.

"Well none of OZ's mobile dolls look anything like it." Heero said. He pushed the "enter" button on his keyboard and an OZ mobile doll popped up. He pushed the "enter" button several more times and several more mobile doll designs came up on screen.

"You're right. The beam riffles are completely different. The tops of these mobile dolls are a lot rounder. And the whole shape of the mobile suit itself is different. The mobile doll from the last battle looks more like a Leo mixed with a Cancer than a Taurus..." Aly observed. Heero nodded.

"Exactly. What I don't understand is if they're not from OZ, then who sent them out? I've already checked White Fang's databases and the mobile dolls don't match any of theirs either..." Heero said. "Do you know of any large organizations besides White Fang and OZ who could have made mobile dolls like these?"

"No...I'm as clueless as you are." Aly answered. Aly's watch beeped. She glanced at it and read the time.

"Well whatever it is, we're gonna have to figure it out later. It's already four-thirty. We've gotta head out in about fifteen minutes." Aly said. Heero nodded.

"The others will be getting up soon. We should head to the cargo hold, they're meeting us there." Heero said. Aly nodded. Heero shut off his laptop and picked it up off the table. He and Aly drifted out the door. Aly grabbed the tow bar and held out a hand to Heero so he could be pulled as well. Heero held his laptop to his chest with one hand and grabbed onto Aly's hand with the other. The tow bar pulled the two of them towards the cargo hold.

When Aly and Heero reached the cargo hold, they found the other pilots were already there, waiting for them. The six pilots all headed to the platforms of their individual gundams. Aly drifted down a platform and climbed into the cockpit of the Ice Angel. She immediately switched the system on. The door of the cockpit shut with a hiss. Aly's center screen was lit up with images of all the other pilots.

"Everybody ready?" Trowa asked. Everyone said "yes" and Trowa opened the door of the cargo hold. He flared the thrusters of his gundam and zoomed out the hatch. The others zoomed out after him. Once all the gundams were out side of the PeaceMillion, Heero spoke.

"Right now we're about ten miles from L9. We're going to go the rest of the way and wait about half a mile off the north side of the colony. We'll have a view of the whole colony from that angle. Everyone got it?" Heero asked. Once everyone was ready, the gundams all zoomed off towards L9.

Something was very wrong. The gundam pilots knew that. They had reached L9 three hours earlier and there had been no sign of any enemy mobile suits or mobile suit carriers. Aly's center screen lit up with an image of Duo.

"Well there hasn't been anything on the news. No sign of attacks anywhere." Duo said. The Gundam pilots had all been watching international, Earth and Colony news for the past few hours to see if there were attacks anywhere else. Quatre came onto Aly's right screen.

"Aly, you said your father was the one who told you there was going to be an attack on L9 right?" Quatre asked. Aly nodded.

"Yeah. He didn't tell me where he got the lead from though." Aly replied.

"Can you contact your father from here?" Duo asked.

"Yeah, I think I can get a connection with his office phone." Aly said.

"Do it then. Ask him what he knows. I'm gonna try to get a hold of Noin back on the Peacemillion. She was the one who told us about this mission right before you showed up." Duo said. Aly nodded again and hit a few buttons.

Heero, Wufei, and Trowa, whom had been listening from the same connection, all sat in silence and waited for Aly to contact her father. Aly drummed her fingers on her knee as she waited for the satellites to connect her to L7. There was a hissing sound like a modem connecting to the internet. A voice came on the line.

"Hello?" The Foreign Minister's voice asked. Aly cut the link between her gundam and the others', wanting to have a private conversation with her father. The images of Duo and Quatre disappeared from her screens.

"It's me." Aly said simply. Her father came up on her center screen.

"Aly?" The Foreign Minister said with disbelief. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes something is very wrong. Is anyone else in the room with you?" Aly asked.

"No, no one's in the office but me." Foreign Minister Tayeari replied. "What's wrong?"

"We're at L9. We've been here three hours and no sign of any disturbances anywhere..." Aly said.

"That's strange...the lead I had was a very reliable source. I don't understand how I could have received inaccurate information like that." Tayeari said slowly.

"Who was your source?" Aly asked. The Foreign Minister started to answer but he was cut off by static. The image grew fuzzy and flickered.

"Father? I'm losing you..." Aly switched frequencies. "Are you still there?" Her only reply was the hissing static. Trowa connected a line with the other gundam pilots.

"Uh guys. We've got a problem. Check the 658 news...a satellite over by L7 was just blown up!" Trowa said quickly. Aly hit a few keys on the key pad and the news came on her center screen. She stared in utter shock at the image before her. A satellite was engulfed in flames and pieces of charred scrap metal were scattered about.

Aly saw something flicker past the camera and swore under her breath. A Mobile Doll came on camera. It was pointing a beam riffle at another satellite. There was a bright flash as the second satellite exploded.

"We're at the wrong damned colony!" Duo exclaimed.

"We've gotta get to L7! Let's go now!" Aly said urgently. She flared the Ice Angel's thrusters and sped off in the direction of L7. The others were not far behind. The mobile doll turned and faced the news camera. It pointed its beam riffle and fired. The screen went fuzzy. Aly turned on the sound and listened to the reporter speak.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, our news satellite has just been destroyed. We are trying to connect to our other satellites, but are having technical difficulties at this time. For those of you just now watching, the satellites around L7 are being destroyed by an unidentified mobile suit. We are trying to connect to the L7 Colony at this time to see if we can speak to their officials. One of our news satellites has just been destroyed as well." The reporter said urgently. Aly muted the news. She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She hoped that they would make it in time.

By the time the gundam pilots had reached L7, all the mobile dolls were gone. The pilots were relieved to see that L7 was still there. The only damage done was to the satellites around the colony. They had been completely destroyed. Bits and pieces of charred metal were scattered all around the colony. The debris was pulled in the colony's orbit, making a ring around it similar to the rings around the planet Saturn. Only, the rings around the colony weren't the pretty yellow color Saturn's rings were. The rings around the colony were black and silver from charred metal.

Some worker mobile suits had gathered up some of the debris and loaded it on to a transport shuttle, but the work had been slow going and not much had been accomplished. The gundam pilots were a ways off from the colony so that they were not spotted by any of the people cleaning up the debris.

"What now? The mobile dolls are long gone." Aly said as she connected a line with the other pilots. Heero came on the line.

"I think we should head back to the Peacemillion." Heero said. The others all agreed. They checked one last time for any signs of mobile dolls before they turned around and headed for the Peacemillion.

When the gundam pilots returned to the Peacemillion late that evening, they were tired, they were hungry, and their gundams needed refueling. Before any of these things were taken care of, the gundam pilots went to find Noin and find out what she knew.

The following day, Aly and the other pilots were sat together in the "Gundam Pilot Commons" and conversed.

When the gundam pilots had returned to the Peacemillion from L7, they had sought out Noin and asked her if she had any ideas why they had been sent to the wrong place. Noin had been just as clueless as they had. She had gotten her information from an old OZ contact that, similar to the Foreign Minister's contact, had never given out false information before.

After that, the pilots had all decided to eat and discuss what their next plan of action would be. The gundam pilots had decided to wait for another sign of disturbance in the colonies before they went out into action again. They were all very anxious to go out and do something. The long calm was becoming nerve-wracking. There had not been that long of a calm between attacks in ages. They knew it was simply the quiet before the storm. The gundam pilots could only wait and expect the worst.

The gundam pilots' conversation that day had been nothing more than a rehashing of their conversation from the previous evening. Everyone decided unanimously that the meeting was over and parted ways. Quatre, Trowa, and Duo decided to stay in the commons and play cards. Heero had left without telling anyone where he was going; no one had bothered to ask him either. Aly decided against playing cards and instead went back to her room to spend some alone, thinking time.

Once Aly was in her room, she sat on her bed, slipped off her shoes, then pulled her legs up onto the bed so that she was sitting "indian style". She placed her elbows on her knees and balanced her chin on her open palms. She had not been thinking long when Skye entered the room.

"Hey Aly. How'd the meeting go?" Skye asked with her characteristic grin lighting up her face. Aly had told Skye everything that had happened the previous night after she and Noin had returned to the dorm. Skye also had known that Aly and the other gundam pilots had planned to meet that afternoon to discuss the situation some more. Aly sat up straight and smiled back at Skye.

"All right. We just repeated most of our conversation from last night. Nothing new. We're still waiting for a disturbance." Aly replied. "How did mechanics go?"

"Fine. I installed that upgraded communications system in your gundam for you."

"Thanks. I was going to install it later tonight. I guess I have some extra free time now."

"No problem. I was bored anyway." Skye said with a shrug. They both looked at the closed door after they heard someone knocking loudly. Skye, who had still been standing, opened the door.

Duo stood in the doorway. Skye stepped aside so he could walk in. He stood in front of Aly's bed. Skye walked over to join them. Duo watched her. When she was closer to him, he eyed her curiously.

"You must be Aly's roomie...Skye right?" Duo asked, grinning at Skye. She smiled back at him.

"Yeah. And you're Duo right?" She quirked an eyebrow at him.

"The one and only." Duo grinned wider. He looked away from Skye and turned to Aly.

"I just wanted to stop by and let you know that dinner's going to be ready soon in the cafeteria." Duo said. Aly nodded. Duo then turned to Skye.

"You want to sit with us?" Duo asked. Skye thought about it briefly. She didn't really have specific people she sat with during meals. She didn't really know anyone there all that well. She had joined the Peacemillion MS tech. crew about three days before the gundam pilots had shown up.

"Sure." Skye said.

"Cool. I'll see you two in the cafeteria in about 15 minutes then." Duo said. Aly and Skye nodded. Duo let himself out and closed the door behind himself.

After he had exited, Skye and Aly shared a look. They both burst into laughter.

"It appears as though he likes you." Aly said after she stopped laughing. She felt great. She had not laughed that much in a very long time.

"Yes, it would appear that way." Skye agreed. She and Aly shared a smile. She and Skye had only known each other for about two days, but they both realized in that moment that they would be great friends one day.

Aly turned back to the topic now tweaking the edge of her mind.

"So, what do you think of him?" Aly asked.

"Well, I think he's cute and all, but I really don't know him. I guess I need more time to form an opinion of him." Skye said thoughtfully. "Although, he gave me a pretty good first impression...and my first impressions are usual pretty accurate..." Skye shrugged. Aly smiled at Skye's out loud, mental rationalization.

"We'll find out later. For now, let's go to the cafeteria." Aly said, standing up. Skye beamed.

"Great I'm starving!" Skye said enthusiastically.

"That's what you said at breakfast...and lunch." Aly said as she headed for the door. She glanced briefly at Skye. Skye seemed pretty well fit for always being hungry.

"I can't help it! Killer metabolisms run in my family. I'm always hungry." Skye said. Aly laughed.

"You and Duo do have something in common: you're both always hungry...and apparently you can both eat a ton and never gain any weight." Aly said as she and Skye walked out the door. Skye laughed.

"Ok." She said simply.

-End of Chapter 8-

Author's Notes: Kori, to answer your semi'question/thought...I'm not giving away any character pairings. They're going to go in a total loop. I like to set up stories. Which, I'm in the process of doing, but I'm not saying HY and AT are definately NOT together winks Any wayz, please review minna-san! It means soooooo much to me! Domo arigatou!  
-Alyrain 


	7. Ch 6: Table Talk

Disclaimer: (See Chapter 1).

A New Ally (1) Chapter 6: Table Talk

Aly and Skye talked most of the way to the cafeteria. They talked about random things, such as favorite foods, favorite activities, and the like. They were not really in the mood to talk about the current politics or the recently failed mission. Eventually, the conversation led to Duo.

"So how do you know Duo, Quatre, and...what's the one with the long bangs...Trowa, so well? All you've really told me about them is that they're old friends and you explained who was who." Skye said.

"Well. I lived near them all at one point. Quatre's father worked with my father for a while. And Trowa, I ran in to-literally on the street one day. As for Duo, I've known him since we were little." Aly said. She did not really feel like going into great detail. She knew she and Skye were getting very close in a short time, but Aly still did not know Skye well enough to share many personal things about her life. That, and Aly was not in the mood to be talkative in general. Skye sensed Aly's lack of desire to talk about it at the moment, so she dropped the subject. They had reached the cafeteria by then, so it did not matter too much anyway.

Aly and the rest of the gundam pilots usually ate in the cafeteria on the Peacemillion along with the rest of the MS tech crew, Howard, Noin, and every other worker on the Peacemillion. No body except Skye, Noin, and Howard really recognized them as the gundam pilots. So, they did not worry too much about blending in and sat together in one corner of the cafeteria.

Skye pushed the button for the sliding airlock door. The door slid open and the noise from the plethora of people conversing in the cafeteria rushed towards her. She and Aly drifted through the door. The door slid shut as soon as they were inside.

Aly looked around. The cafeteria always gave her a cozy feeling. It was so full of life. It was a nice change from the quiet she usually had throughout the day. Aly spotted Duo waving from the table in the far-left corner of the room. She pointed him out to Skye and led the way over.

When Skye and Aly reached the table, they saw Trowa, and Quatre were already sitting and had gotten their food.

"Hey Skye, hey Aly." Duo greeted. They both smiled and said their hellos.

"Well, I'm starving. You guys ready to go through the line?" Duo asked. Aly and Skye both nodded and they drifted over to the line together.

A few minutes later, Aly, Duo, and Skye returned to the table to find the others had gone through the line and were seated at the table. Heero and Wufei both stared at Skye, sizing her up. She simply quirked an eyebrow at them. She knew they weren't very social people from what Aly and Duo had told her in the dinner line.

"Uhm, this is Skye, Aly and Noin's roommate. She's also one of the MS techs here. I invited her to sit with us." Duo said, introducing Skye and trying to get Heero and Wufei to stop glaring at her. Heero and Wufei lowered their gazes to their plates.

"First Tayeari and Noin...now another one..." Wufei muttered under his breath. Everyone pretended not to hear him. The gundam pilots, Noin, and Howard usually sat together, but it was more so because they were the few people they could all semi-trust rather than a social matter. It had taken the gundam pilots a long time to learn to trust each other. Trusting Howard and Noin had been tough too. Skye was a totally new person, whom was not even a pilot, so Wufei and Heero were a bit tense around her. They still did not even know Aly well enough to form concrete opinions of her.

Quatre, Trowa, and Howard were all right with Skye sitting with them though. They were a lot friendlier- more accepting people than Heero and Wufei. Skye and Aly were happy they were sitting across from them. Although, directly in front of Aly was Heero, but he seemed more interested in his food at the moment.

Aly leaned around Skye to talk to Duo who was to Skye's right.

"Do you have any extra sugar packets? I forgot to get some in the line." Aly asked. Duo nodded. He grabbed a packet of sugar from the large stack on his tray. He handed it to Skye who in turn passed it to Aly.

"Thanks." Aly ripped open the sugar packet and poured some over her bowl of strawberries. Skye glanced curiously at Duo's tray.

"Why do you have so many packets of sugar?" Skye asked. Duo shrugged.

"I got extra to save for later. I have a collection of ketchup, sugar, salt, and pepper packets. You never know when you may need some condiments." Duo said wisely.

"Oh. I see." Skye glanced at Aly and they both suppressed giggles. Aly went back to eating her dinner. The meal that evening was white rice and an option of either sweet and sour tofu or chicken to go with it. Aly had gotten the sweet and sour tofu, and Skye and Duo had gotten the chicken. They all thoroughly enjoyed their food. The cooks on the Peacemillion were very good.

"So Aly, did your father tell you how long you will be staying here on the Peacemillion?" Quatre asked from his seat across from Skye.

"No. I'm assuming until after the war is over. Or, however long I feel I can be helpful." Aly replied. Quatre nodded, then turned his attention to Skye.

"Miss Skye, you have been here about as long as Aly. Correct?" Quatre inquired.

"Yes, and it's just Skye."

"Alright, Skye, how do you like the Peacemillion so far?"

"I think it's great. I really love MS mechanics. Getting to work on the gundams has been really fun. I am glad that I have something to do that I enjoy. Although, I wish I were not repairing MS's after battles, but after something different; something less harsh." Skye replied.

"How did you learn how to do gundam mechanics?" Heero asked, breaking the silent streak he had had for that entire meal. The rest of the people at the table brought their attention to Skye as well.

"Well, I had to teach myself really. I had never really had a gundam to practice on." Skye said. Heero did not respond; he just continued to stare at Skye with a look of suspicion evident on his face. He finally looked away and the others did too.

Aly could hear Duo talking up a storm with Skye and Quatre, but she did not pay much attention to what they were saying. She was busy with her own world of thought. Aly still had a sinking feeling in her stomach. Why had L7 of all the colonies been attacked? It made no sense to her.

Everyone was being extremely silent, so Aly looked up briefly. Her gaze was met with Heero's. Aly was somewhat weirded out. She was not sure if they had simply looked up at the same time or he had been staring. She offered a smile to him when she saw the haunted look that his always seemed to hold. Heero made no change in expression. He simply looked back down at his food. Aly shrugged it off and went back to eating.

No one seemed to notice that Aly was being silent. Perhaps they were all too used to Wufei's, Trowa's, and Heero's quiet natures. It was not until Duo got up to go get another drink that Skye turned to Aly and spoke.

"Thanks for letting me sit in between you guys instead of just next to him. I'd feel a bit uncomfortable if I was." Skye said loud enough for only Aly to hear over the noise of the cafeteria. Aly nodded.

"No problem, I know Duo can be a bit...well, extremely overbearing at times." Aly replied.

"I've gathered that." Skye smiled at her.

About ten minutes later, the pilots, Noin, Howard, and Skye had all finished eating. Duo, Skye, and Aly were among the few people still in the cafeteria after the kitchen had been closed up. They finally decided to leave after noticing how many people were gone already.

Duo offered to walk the girls back to their room. The girls had accepted which brought a big smile to Duo's face.

Once they got to the girls' room, the trio went inside. They had decided on the way there to play cards. Aly and Duo sat on the floor while Skye got a deck of cards out of one of the desk drawers. She joined Aly and Duo on the floor and began shuffling the cards.

"So? What're we playing?" Skye asked as she bridged the cards.

"How about hearts?" Duo suggested. Skye shrugged and divvied out the deck of cards. The trio all picked up their cards and passed their three cards to the left. Duo, who had been sitting on Skye's left, placed down the first card: a two of spades.

"Duo! Why'd you start w/ spades! You just gave me all the high ones!" Aly said as she glared at Duo. Duo smiled sheepishly.

"Did I?"

"Don't worry, I gave him some FUN ones too." Skye said with an evil smirk.

About two hours later, Noin walked into the room. She noticed the trio playing cards and quickly apologized for interrupting the game.

"It's alright. We just got done playing anyway." Duo said with a smile.

"Said like a true loser." Skye said. Duo gave her a pretend glare and stuck his tongue out at her. Had they been playing for money, Duo would have been bankrupt and it debt for about five years. The girls had started out losing the first game, but after that, they had murdered Duo's pride by winning every single time.

Noin smiled.

"They give you a hard time, Duo?" Noin asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Nope, I just decided to be chivalrous and let them beat me." Duo said with a grin.

"Sure...all fifteen times..." Skye said quietly. She, Aly, and Noin all laughed. Quatre and Howard, whom had been drifting by the open doorway stopped and glanced in.

"What're we missing?" Howard asked.

"Nothing much. Just a friendly game of cards." Aly replied. Howard's eyebrow raised a little when he noticed Duo mouthing "they're EVIL!" behind the girls' backs.

"Who's evil?" Quatre asked. The girls all turned to give Duo accusing looks. He turned a pale shade of red.

"Uhm...no one." Duo said with an angelic smile. He jumped up from his seat on the floor.

"I think it's time I went back to my own room. It's getting pretty late. And, we don't know what may come up tomorrow." Duo said. The group all nodded in agreement. Duo drifted out of the room, dragging Howard and Quatre along with him.

"Night Aly! Night Skye! Night Noin!" Duo called before he shut the door. The three girls shared a look.

"What was that all about?" Noin asked, "It's not like we were going to kill him or anything..." Noin smiled mischievously.

"Maybe another time. Right now, I'm tired, I want to just go to sleep." Aly said. Noin and Skye agreed, so they all got ready for bed.

Fire, everywhere fire. Aly looked around with half-closed eyelids. The heat was intense and the fires all around her made it hard to see clearly.

"AMÌ! Am� where are you?" Aly called. She cupped her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice projection. She had been talking to her friends Am� and Kenichi in the gundam lab when there had been a giant explosion.

Aly had been knocked backwards and found herself buried under a pile of rubble. After she had dug herself out from the debris, Aly had begun searching for Am� and Kenichi. She began to feel frantic; as she could not see them anywhere.

"Kenichi! Am�! Where are you? Can you hear me?" Aly walked towards the smoldering heap of metal that used to be a gundam. She could not believe how it had been destroyed in one explosion. She kicked over a small piece of sheet metal and found shattered glass from the "eyes" of the gundam. Part of the metal catwalk above Aly crashed down at her feet. She jumped backwards in fright.

'Damnit. This lab is falling apart! Where the hell are they?' Aly thought, fear creeping into her heart. Aly continued her search. Sweat was rolling down her forehead from the heat of the flames. She wiped at her brow.

"Aly!" Aly turned towards the sound of the voice. She felt very relieved when she saw her friend Am� running towards her. Am� looked about as bruised and beat up as Aly felt. Her dark blonde hair was singed and her face was smudged with soot.

"I need your help I found Kenichi. He's stuck under a metal lab table. I can't lift it by myself." Am� said in a rush, her dark brown eyes flashing. Aly nodded and followed Am� as she ran towards the front of the gundam lab. Aly saw Kenichi lying pinned under the table and hurried to grip one side.

"What the hell happened?" Aly asked as she and Am� strained to lift up the table. They pulled it aside and Kenichi scrambled to his feet. He was limping slightly, but he was more worried about getting out of there than feeling pain.

"Who knows, but we need to get the hell out of here before this entire lab collapses!" Kenichi said as he glanced quickly at the metal ceiling panels. Aly and Am� followed him as he led the way to the exit.

When they reached the exit, Kenichi, Am�, and Aly all worked together to move the debris out of the way and pry the heavy, thick lead door open. They shoved the door open just as the lab began to shake again. Am� was the first to rush out. Kenichi was close behind her. Aly had started out the door, but glanced back behind herself at the collapsing, burning gundam lab. She watched as the last of the catwalk collapsed and the metal ceiling panel began to fall.

Aly was fear-struck. She could not make her feet move. She felt as though her legs were made of cement. Kenichi and Am� had noticed Aly was not behind them, so they rushed back in.

"Aly we need to get out of here!" Am� shouted. Aly nodded, but still could not move. More and more ceiling tiles began to drop. They made a loud crashing thud as they hit piles of debris. Am� went back out the door and Kenichi pushed Aly through. Aly snapped from her daze as soon as she was outside. She saw Kenichi fleeing out the door as the last huge metal ceiling panel dropped. Aly grabbed Kenichi's hand and tried to pull him out with her.

"Kenichi! Aly! Come on!" Am� shouted. There was another explosion and Kenichi's hand was jerked from Aly's grasp. She saw his face right before she had too look away from the power of the explosion. A look of absolute horror was on his face. Aly was knocked away from the doorway. The large metal door was pulled shut by the shockwave. Aly reached blindly for Kenichi, but only grasped empty air.

"Kenichi! Kenichi!" Aly heard Am�'s screams and she knew; he had just been trapped inside.

Aly jerked awake. She looked around frantically. Her brain relaxed the slightest bit when she realized where she was, the room she shared with Noin and Skye. Aly was shaking badly. She felt far too hot. She kicked her covers down and sat up. Her hands were shaking badly. She brought her left hand in front of her face and studied it.

'Why am I still having this dream? It was two years ago!' Aly tried to calm her breathing. She remembered the factory explosion well, but she had tried so hard to forget. The guilt still haunted her, tormenting her in her dreams.

'I should have held on tighter...' Aly shook her head and punched her pillow in anger. She fell back against her pillow and tried to forget her dream. Glancing at the clock, she discovered that it was five am. She knew that everyone else would be getting up in the next hour.

Aly rolled onto her side and fell back asleep without pulling even a sheet up. She hoped that the cool of the room would calm her fiery memories.

-End of Chapter 6-

Please R&R! I need feedback/suggestions! I got writer's block so bad! Gomen nasai minna-san. Reviews fuel inspiration...so review! Arigatou!

-AlyRain 


	8. Ch 7: Let The Fighting Begin

Disclaimer: See chapter 1

A New Ally(1) Chapter 7: Let the Fighting Begin!

Aly awoke to the sounds of voices. She blinked her eyes open and looked forward. Skye and Noin were standing in front of her bed debating whether or not to wake her up. They had their backs to her, so they could not tell that she had already awoken.

"She's been sleeping for a long time. She slept through breakfast. I think we should wake her up now." Noin said.

"I don't know. Maybe she had trouble sleeping last night. It looked like she had kicked all her covers off in her sleep." Skye said pointedly.

"Don't worry. I'm awake." Aly said groggily. She sat up slowly while Skye and Noin turned around to face her.

"Are you ok?" Skye asked. She and Noin sat on the edge of Aly's bed.

"Yah. I just didn't sleep too well. Got hot flashes or something." Aly said.

"Hot flashes? Are you sick?" Noin asked. Aly smiled slightly.

"No, I'm alright. I just had on too many blankets when I went to bed last night." Aly explained. It was the truth. Not the entire truth, but still the truth.

"What time is it?" Aly asked. She slid out of her bed and stood up to stretch.

"It's noon. You slept through breakfast. And, lunch is in a few minutes." Skye said.

"Do you feel up to eating?" Skye asked. Aly yawned.

"Yes. I feel drained. Need some food energy." She answered. "I'll meet you guys down there. I need to go shower and get dressed."

"Ok." Noin said.

"You sure you don't want us to wait for you?" Skye offered.

"No, go ahead. I'll be fine." Aly said with a shake of her head. Skye and Noin shared a look. They both shrugged. The two drifted out the door, leaving Aly to herself.

Aly sighed. She could not believe she had overslept. That dream she had had took a lot out of her. She frowned, remembering it.

'I still don't understand why I had the dream last night. I haven't had that dream in several months...' Aly thought as she went through her duffel bag in search of an outfit. She pulled out a pair of denim shorts and a charcoal gray t-shirt. She also pulled out her small toiletries bag and a towel.

Aly held the change of clothes, toiletries bag, and folded towel to her chest with one arm while she used her free hand to zip the duffel bag shut. She stood up and drifted to the door. After pulling the door open, she drifted out, switching off the light on the way.

She pulled the door shut and grasped the tow bar with her free hand.

'The showers will be warm since everyone else is in the cafeteria right now.' Aly thought. She hoped a hot shower would wake her up and clear her clouded mind.

Fifteen minutes later, Aly drifted into the cafeteria. Her hair was up in a ponytail, still wet from her shower. She had not bothered to dry it in her hurry to make it to lunch on time.

When Aly entered the cafeteria, she looked around for Skye, Noin, Howard, and her fellow pilots. She spotted them all sitting at the same table as the evening before. Aly drifted over to the line to get her lunch before she bothered making her presence known.

For lunch that day, the meal choices were fruit salad, and various sub sandwiches. Aly picked up a tray and set it onto the rail. She looked over the various sandwich choices in the cooler and picked out a "veggie-lovers" one. She paused for a long time in front of the fruit salads. She could not decide if she wanted the tropical mix, the regular one, or the combination.

"Tough choices, huh?" A female voice to Aly's right asked. Aly turned to look at the person who had spoken to her. It was the person next in line. Aly studied her briefly. She had raven colored hair that came down to her mid-back and dark, expressive blue eyes.

After a split-second, Aly figured she was a fun loving person, who was usually very outgoing and optimistic. She was the kind of person Aly would adore spending time with on a bad day. She appeared to be almost the female version of Duo at a serious time with a bit of Quatre's polite mannerisms.

"Yes, very tough decision." Aly said with a slight smile.

"I recommend the tropical. It always seems fresher tasting than the mixed or the regular." Raven suggested. Aly nodded and picked up a bowl, setting it on her tray.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Have you been on the Peacemillion long?" She said as she got her own bowl.

"Not really. Only a couple days." Aly replied sincerely. She slid her tray down the rail, drifting after it. She stopped at the drinks section and looked over the various bottles.

"Oh. I've been here for about a month. I do MS tech work." Aly nodded to show she was listening.

"My name's Raven by the way." The girl stated. Aly could tell she had gotten the name for her shiny, raven-colored hair.

"I'm Natalya." Aly looked up to meet Raven's gaze.

"Natalya... What do you do here on the Peacemillion?" Raven asked as she reached past Aly to grab a bottle of water, a glass, and a tea bag.

"I do computer tech." Aly lied easily. She grabbed a bottle of water for herself and set it on her tray.

"That explains why I have not seen you before. You must work at the other end." Raven said thoughtfully. Aly simply nodded. The two girls stepped out of the line and Aly glanced back towards her new comrades. She felt bad ditching Raven. The girl seemed very nice, but Aly did not want Heero and Wufei giving Raven the stare-down like they had with Skye.

"Would you like to sit with me and a few of my fellow MS techies?" Raven asked. Aly frowned. She really did not know this Raven girl. She was not sure how good it would be to go off making a bunch of new friends there. She really did not desire to become noticed. That, and she wanted to sit with her close friends whom she knew and trusted.

"I'd like to, but I already promised some old friends of mine I would sit with them. Sorry." Aly finally said. Raven nodded. She seemed to accept Aly's answer and to not mind in the slightest.

"That's quite all right. Perhaps I will see you around the ship."

"Maybe. It was nice meeting you Raven." Aly said before Raven turned and drifted away. Aly drifted over to the table her friends and comrades were sitting at. Duo was the first one to notice her. He gasped overdramatically.

"She's alive!" Duo said with mock shock. Aly rolled her eyes at him.

"Of course I'm alive." Aly said plainly as she sat down in the empty seat beside him.

"We were getting worried. We thought you might have been sick or something." Quatre said from his spot across the table from her.

"I'm fine. Really. I just got too hot last night and did not sleep well. It's not a big deal." Aly said. She smiled slightly to reassure him. Aly noticed then that Skye was not seated there with them. She turned to Noin on Duo's right to inquire about Skye's absence.

"Hey Noin, where's Skye? I thought you two came down here together." Aly said. Noin looked up at her.

"Oh, she got invited to sit with some of the other MS techs." Noin answered.

"Yah, some guy in particular seemed to be the one inviting her." Duo said with a mischievous grin. Aly found that surprising. Skye had not mentioned any MS tech friends, especially not a guy.

"Jealous?" Aly asked Duo.

"Nah. She and I just didn't click ya know?" Duo said with a shrug. Aly nodded. She decided to ask Skye about the other MS techs and that alleged guy when she saw Skye that evening. Aly did not speak again for the rest of the meal.

Aly was the third one to finish eating. Wufei and Heero had already left the cafeteria. Aly decided to do the same. She wanted to go think. She still could not get her dream off her mind. It was not just a dream. It was a memory, which made it even harder to forget.

"I'm gonna go. I want to read for a while." Aly said while standing. Quatre who had just finished eating stood up too.

"May I walk you back? I'm headed in the same direction." Quatre said. Aly debated for a minute in her mind. She wasn't sure if she really wanted company right then, even if it would be for a very brief time. Aly decided that she did not want Quatre to get more worried about her, so she would let him come with her.

"Sure."

"Great." Quatre and Aly took their trays up before they drifted out of the cafeteria.

As soon as they were alone in the hallway, Quatre spoke up.

"What's wrong? And please do not tell me you simply got too hot." Quatre said.

"What gave it away?" Aly asked. She felt that she should have known Quatre would see through her half-truth. He had always had a sixth sense for those types of things.

"You know me. I just can tell with you. You're a good friend Aly. I want to know what is bothering you." Quatre said. Aly grasped a towbar with one hand and held onto Quatre's hand with the other.

"It is kind of difficult to explain." Aly said.

"Please try." Quatre said. Aly let go of the towbar and put her feet down. They were standing in front of the "Gundam Pilot Commons". Aly opened the door and led the way inside. She was relieved that Wufei and Heero were not there for once.

"Ok, have a seat. I will try to explain as best I can." Aly said. She and Quatre both sat down at the table, facing each other. Aly thought for a moment, deciding where to begin.

"You remember how I told you I was going to pilot a gundam before the Ice Angel...the Wing Zero, but the factory was destroyed...?" Aly began. Quatre nodded and gave her a look, urging her to continue.

"That happened two years ago. The whole operation was top secret. The factory only had three workers. Myself, and two others, recruited by my father. They had been good friends of mine-Kenichi and Am�.

I had a dream last night...about the factory explosion. It happened so suddenly one random day. The three of us had been in the lab. We were not doing anything special, simply having a friendly conversation. There was an explosion. I remember it so well... It caught us completely off guard. We never could figure out what caused it.

After the explosion, the lab started falling apart. The whole factory was collapsing. What parts of the gundam had been finished were completely destroyed..." Aly was staring down at the tabletop, lost in her memories.

"Am� found me...she and I had to lift up a metal lab table that Kenichi had been pinned under. We all ran for the door. There were fires everywhere... Everything was burning. We all had to work together to get the door open. It was so heavy...

I froze right inside the doorway. The ceiling panels had started to fall. I was captivated by the sight of it. Am� and Kenichi came back in to get me." Aly had started clasping and unclasping her hands. Quatre watched her closely, studying all of her expressions. He waited patiently for Aly to continue, not wanting to disturb her train of thoughts.

"Am� ran back outside, Kenichi shoved me out. I could see the last ceiling panel falling and Kenichi was running for the door. I grabbed his hand. I tried to pull him out...

There was another explosion. I got knocked backwards. Kenichi's hand was pulled from mine. I saw his face as he was thrown away from me...he was terrified...

I had to look away because the blast made it so hot and sent debris flying. I reached out towards Kenichi, trying desperately to find him. I looked back and saw that the door had been pulled shut. I could hear Am� screaming...and that's when I knew...Kenichi was in there...The whole building collapsed.

After the colony emergency response team arrived, there was nothing left. When they found Kenichi...he could not have been identified. He was so...destroyed." Aly looked up at Quatre. His eyes had shadows in them. He seemed highly disturbed by her story.

"Am� always said it wasn't my fault. It never made the guilt or the pain go away though. I just wish I could have done something different." Aly said.

"You can't change the past Aly. And, Am�'s right. It was not your fault." Quatre said, puting a hand over her clasped hands to offer comfort.

"He shouldn't have died. He had reasons to live. He and Am� were married you know... And they had a daughter. She was only three at the time. She did nothing wrong...she didn't deserve to lose her father." Aly said. She clenched her teeth.

"Aly stop tormenting yourself. You can't change the past. It wasn't your fault that the factory exploded. And, it wasn't your fault that he got pulled back in by that other explosion." Quatre said.

"I know...I thought I was over it. It's been two years. And, I hadn't had that dream for months. I don't understand why it came up all of the sudden." Aly said.

"It's probably from the last battle. All the explosions from those carriers the other day must have stirred up the memories of the factory explosion." Quatre said wisely. Aly considered his words. It made sense.

"I think you're right...I guess I just am still getting used to live battles." Aly said.

"Believe me. We all are. It's hard on all of us. Even Heero and Wufei." Quatre said.

"Heero and Wufei?"

"Yes, they may seem very composed, but they bury it all inside. It hurts them too. All the death and destruction." Quatre said gravely. Aly thought about the haunted look she had seen in Heero's eyes. She realized that must have been the reason behind it.

"Thanks for listening to me...and offering some wisdom." Aly said.

"I'm always here for you Aly." Quatre gave her hand an affectionate squeeze. Aly smiled gratefully at him. She cared dearly for Quatre. He had always been a caring friend. They had a very deep connection. And, as they had discovered in the past few days, it was deeper than they had known. Aly had never expected her dearest, kindest friend to be a gundam pilot. Though, she doubted he would have ever expected the same from her.

"What?" Quatre quirked an eyebrow at Aly.

"You're always so kind; always offering words of wisdom... How do you know things will always turn out all right?" Aly asked.

"You're a strong-willed person. I have faith in you." Quatre said. Aly could not figure out why she had done it, but she had felt something pulling at her, so she went with it. She leaned over the table and kissed Quatre very lightly.

When she leaned back, she was shocked at what she had done. She tried very hard to read Quatre's expression, but was unsuccessful.

At that moment, Heero and Trowa drifted in the room. They both mentally noted the way that Quatre had his hand on Aly's and the way they were looking at each other then.

"Are we interrupting something?" Trowa asked monotonously. Quatre blushed and pulled his hand back. Aly simply frowned at the two.

"No. We were just talking. And, I'm leaving now anyway." Aly stated. She stood from her seat and drifted towards the door.

"Talk to you later Quatre, Trowa." Aly said. She drifted out the door without waiting for a reply from either of them.

"What was that about?" Trowa asked Quatre after Aly was gone. Heero did not seem to care in the slightest. He simply sat down and turned on his laptop.

"I have no idea." Quatre replied with a frown.

That night, Skye, Noin, and Aly were all in their room, on their respective bunks. Noin and Skye were talking and Aly was only half listening. She was lying on her bed with her arms folded behind her head and was staring up at the bottom of Noin's bunk.

"So, who was he?" Noin asked. Skye smiled shyly.

"His name is Alec Fontane. I met him my first day here. He's another MS techie." Skye replied.

"And you had lunch and dinner with him today..." Noin said. Skye flushed the slightest bit.

"Yes. He's my boyfriend." Skye said. Noin looked surprised.

"Really? Well. I'm happy for you. I hope things work out for you." Noin said with a warm smile. Skye smiled back at her.

"Thanks. Duo's not upset is he?" Skye asked as she leaned over the side of her bunk to look at Aly. Aly shook from her thoughts. She had been lost in her own little world of thought. Her mind had been more focused on what had happened in the "GPC" ("Gundam Pilot Commons") after lunch that day.

"No. He's ok. He said you two just didn't click." Aly replied. Skye nodded and rolled over so she was lying on her back.

"It's getting late. We should go to bed." Skye said.

"You're right. Aly would you mind turning off the light?" Noin asked. Aly got off her bed and drifted over to the light switch.

"No problem. I'm going to go get some water. Good night you two." Aly said as she switched off the light. She drifted out the door after hearing their chorused "good night"s.

Aly grasped a towbar and let it pull her down the hallway. She let go of the towbar in front of the "GPC". Pausing briefly to push back the déjà vu feeling, Aly pushed the button beside the door. The door slid open and Aly drifted inside.

She was surprised to find Duo and Heero were both there. Heero was busily typing on his laptop and Duo was eating an ice cream sandwich. Aly was more surprised to see Duo than Heero. She remembered that Heero had been there the other night when she had had trouble sleeping.

"Hey Aly. You're up late." Duo said. Aly walked to the mini-fridge and got out a bottle of water.

"Needed some water." She replied. She opened her bottle of water and took a drink.

"Oh." Duo took another bite of ice cream. Aly sat beside him while she finished drinking her water.

"Where were you after dinner today?"

"I was in the hanger, running system checks on my gundam."

"Oh-K." Duo shrugged.

Aly had been silent at dinner. She had avoided looking at Quatre. Her entire meal had been spent thinking about the kiss. She had not wanted to be around other people, so she had escaped to the seclusion of the cargo hold.

"Do you know if Quatre is still up?" Aly drank the last sip of water in the bottle and got up to throw it away. Duo swallowed his bite of ice cream before answering.

"Maybe. Why?" Duo asked.

"I need to talk to him." Aly stated plainly.

"What about?"

"Stuff." Aly narrowed her eyes at Duo. His innocent curiosity was likely to have nearly gotten him killed many times.

"What stuff?" Duo crumpled up the wrapper to his ice cream sandwich and drifted over to the garbage to throw it away.

"Stuff we talked about after lunch today." Aly looked at Heero before looking back at Duo who had sat back down. Heero glanced back and forth between Aly and Duo out of the corner of his eye.

"I will explain later..." Aly said. She drifted towards the door.

"Ok. You are going now?" Duo asked. Aly opened the door.

"Yeah. I don't want to keep him up too late." Aly drifted out the door.

"Night Aly."

"Night Duo." She closed the door behind herself and drifted down the hallway.

Aly stopped in front of the room Quatre shared with Duo and Trowa. Her heartbeat started to pick up as she lifted a hand to knock on the door. She hoped that Trowa and Quatre were not already sleeping.

After knocking lightly three times, Aly drifted back a step and waited. The door opened and Trowa stood in the doorway looking like he had been half-asleep.

"Hi Trowa...Did I wake you up?" Aly asked with a sheepish half smile. Trowa leaned against the doorframe.

"I wasn't quite asleep yet. What do you need?"

"I need to talk to Quatre. Is he up?" Aly asked, glancing around Trowa and into the room without moving her head too much. Trowa glanced over his shoulder before drifting backwards, unblocking Quatre from view. Quatre drifted out into the hallway.

"Hey Aly. What's up." Quatre had on a sleepy, yet still friendly smile.

"I need to talk to you." Aly said. She glanced at Trowa.

"I am going back to bed. You two talk. Good night Aly." Trowa said. He closed the door, leaving Quatre and Aly alone in the hallway.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Quatre asked. He leaned sideways against the wall to look at her. Aly shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She looked up at him.

"I have been thinking a lot about...what happened after lunch today..." Aly began.

"What did you think?" Quatre asked. His smile fell. Aly chewed on her lower lip and glanced down briefly.

"I want to know if it was just...the moment, or the conversation, or the fact that we have been friends so long, or..." Aly stopped herself and looked back up at him.

"I just need to know if that kiss meant anything to you." Aly grasped the bottom of her t-shirt and twisted it in her fingers while she waited for Quatre to answer. He smiled gently and grabbed her other hand, clasping it between both of his.

"Aly, I have known you for almost four years now. You're a great friend...I care about you a lot..." Quatre trailed off. Aly looked away. She had a feeling what he was going to say next. Quatre gently touched her chin and turned her head to face him again. He put his hand back over hers.

"That kiss meant everything to me." Quatre said. He kissed her fingers lightly and lowered her hand, letting go of it. Aly's eyes widened in surprise. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head against his shoulder. Quatre wrapped his arms around her back and held her close.

"Uhm. Sorry to ruin the friendly cuddly moment you two, but, I need to get in the room." Duo said. Aly and Quatre let go of each other and drifted away from the door

"Sorry Duo." Aly and Quatre said in unison. Duo drifted to the door and opened it. Aly opened her mouth to ask Duo a question, but he cut her off by speaking.

"It's ok. And, before you ask, I just got here." With that, Duo disappeared into his room and shut the door. Quatre smiled shyly at Aly.

"So what now?" He asked.

"Now, we should both get to sleep. It's late." Aly replied. Quatre nodded. He pulled her to him for a hug.

"Good night Aly. Sleep well."

"You too." Aly pulled away from him and drifted away towards her room. Quatre waved once before he went back into his own room.

The following afternoon, Aly, Skye, and Noin were drifting towards the cargo hold after lunch. Noin stopped suddenly as they were about to pass by the door to their room. Aly and Skye noticed a woman leaning against the door.

"Sally!" Noin called. Noin, Aly, and Skye stopped before the young woman with the light brown, spiraled pigtails.

"Hello Noin." Sally said with a warm smile.

"I haven't seen you in a few days. Where have you been?" Noin asked.

"I've been working graveyard shifts doing research and helping with the night watch." Sally replied.

"Oh. I see." Noin said thoughtfully.

"I decided that if I really wanted to be useful, I should be up at the same time as you and the pilots." Sally said. She turned and glanced at Skye and Aly who were standing one step behind Noin.

"Nice to see you again Skye." Sally nodded towards Skye.

"Nice to see you again too Sally." Skye replied. Sally's eyes raised slightly when she recognized Aly.

"You're Natalya Tayeari right?" Sally asked.

"Yes. I am." Aly said simply.

"It's nice to meet you." Sally held out her hand.

"Nice to meet you too Sally." Aly said.

"You pilot the sixth gundam right?" Sally asked.

"Yes."

"I'm glad you're on our team." Sally said with a smile, letting go of Aly's hand.

"We're on our way to the cargo hold. Would you like to come with?" Skye asked. Sally turned to Skye.

"Thank you for offering, but I need to go find Howard. I was hoping one of you two would be able to tell me where he is." Sally said.

"The last I saw him, he was still in the cafeteria, drinking coffee." Skye said.

"Thanks." Sally headed in the direction of the cafeteria. Skye, Aly, and Noin continued on their way to the cargo hold.

In the cargo hold, Noin, Skye, and Aly were discussing the current politics while trying to fix loose wires in the left leg of Aly's gundam.

"What do you think White Fang's next plan of action is? They already hit Earth once with Libra's canon..." Skye said.

"I'm not sure. I have a feeling they may try to attack the Peacemillion. They know we have the gundams here and will most likely see the Peacemillion as a threat." Noin answered.

"In that case, the other pilots and I will have to fight them off before they can get close enough to attack." Aly said as she pulled a pair of pliers from her back pocket. She used the pliers to reattach a snapped wire.

"Yes. I just hope you all are ready for them." Noin said.

"Well, other than that faulty mission on L9 few days ago, we have been doing nothing but sit around and wait for the past week. The gundams are in perfect working order. We have been doing nothing more than fine tuning; just like we are right now." Aly said, gesturing to the wires they were working on.

"Hey Noin!" A voice called from above them on the catwalk. Noin, Aly, and Skye turned to see Duo waving from the catwalk.

"Hello Duo. What's going on?" Noin responded.

"Howard and Sally want you. They're in the control room." Duo said.

"All right." Noin said. "See you guys at dinner." Noin said to Aly and Skye before she pushed off towards the catwalk.

"Bye Noin." Skye said. "I wonder what Skye and Howard want..."

"Hrm...who knows." Aly said. Duo drifted down next to them. He had a wicked grin on is face.

"So...Aly...What's the deal with you and Quatre?" Duo asked. Aly stopped what she was doing and looked up at him. Skye looked up too.

"What do you mean?" Aly asked.

"Well. You guys were acting kinda differently at breakfast and lunch today. And, there was that thing last night. You two looked like I had interrupted something." Duo said.

"What's it to you?" Aly narrowed her eyes at Duo.

"Awww c'mon! You gotta tell me what's going on! I'm one of your best friends too ya know!" Duo said in a whiny tone. Skye giggled.

"Fine." Aly sighed. "He and I are going out now."

"WHAT?" Duo nearly fell over backwards in shock. "Since when?"

"Since before lunch." Aly said calmly. She went back to her work.

"Wow...who would've seen that coming?" Duo wondered aloud.

"Well, I'm happy for her... Quatre seems like a great guy." Skye said with a smile.

"Hey, I'm happy too! Just...a bit surprised. That's all." Duo said.

"Jealous...?" Skye said as she poked Duo lightly in the stomach with the handle of her screwdriver.

"Who me? Nah..." Duo said with a goofy smile. "If Aly's happy, I'm happy."

"Thanks you two." Aly looked up and gave them both a light smile.

"Whatcha working on? Can I help at all?" Duo asked. He examined Aly's work on the reattached wires.

"Sure, if you would like. We're reattaching some loose wires. I think they came undone in the hasty flight from L9." Aly said. Duo drifted down a ways to reach the toolbox and pulled out a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.

"Cool. I have nothing better to do right now." Duo grinned.

The trio spent the following hour working on the Ice Angel. They finished repairing the loose wires, then ran several system checks on the DeathScythe and the Ice Angel. They had finally given up when they realized that they were not doing anything to really boost the gundams' performance.

Duo drifted with Skye and Aly to their room. He was on his way to the GPC to look for the other pilots and Skye and Aly wanted to see if Noin was back from her meeting with Howard and Sally.

The trio had not even gotten to Aly and Skye's room when they met up with Noin, Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei heading towards the cargo hold.

"Libra's sent a bunch of mobile suit carriers this way! We need to go stop them before they get too close to the Peacemillion!" Quatre said in a rush. Aly, Skye, and Duo turned around and followed the other pilots to the cargo hold.

"Where's Heero?" Aly asked.

"He said he had some thing to take care of." Quatre said.

When the pilots reached the cargo hold, they all rushed to their gundams while Noin went to her white Taurus. The group quickly fired up their mobile suits and prepared to zoom out of the hatch, towards the oncoming mobile doll fleet.

It had been two days since the gundam pilots had won the first battle against the White Fang's mobile dolls. Over those two days, the gundam pilots had fought another battle against White Fang. The pilots were growing more and more anxious as they felt the final battle approach them.

Aly stood with Duo in front of a glass window looking into the medical wing of the Peacemillion. Inside was a young girl with short, almost black, hair lying very still on a hospital bed. She was deathly pale and had a blood IV going into one arm. Duo put his hand to the glass.

"Hilde..." Duo whispered. Aly looked at him and frowned. She tried to mentally sort through everything that had happened over the previous two days.

During the battle the previous day, Heero had left his fellow pilots to go fight Zechs Merquise, the leader of the White Fang. Quatre had led his fellow pilots by using the zero system to form strategic counterattacks against the enemy mobile dolls. Heero had had the system installed in Quatre's Sandrock gundam the day before.

Quatre's strategies had seemed to be working when something unusual had happened. All of the gundam pilots had heard an emergency transmission directed to the Peacemillion. It had been a friend of Duo's calling for help.

Duo had taken off to go help the girl in distress, Hilde Schweiker. Aly remembered how panicked Duo had seemed when he recognized the girl's voice.

Aly discovered later that the girl, Hilde, had stolen information from the Libra base and was trying to bring it to Duo when she had been discovered. She was attacked by White Fang mobile dolls and would have died if Duo had not gotten to her in time.

White Fang had nearly destroyed the Peacemillion as well. They had fired their main cannon at it. The Peacemillion had barely gotten out of the way in time. Only the left side was partially damaged by the blast.

When the battle had finally ended, the gundam pilots had all returned to the Peacemillion. Hilde was rushed to the medical wing of the Peacemillion. The gundam pilots watched as she was wheeled down the hallway. Aly had never seen Duo so upset. She decided that he really must have cared about Hilde.

After Hilde was taken away, the gundam pilots had returned to the cargo hold. The workers on the Peacemillion worked quickly to repair the damaged left side of the ship while the gundam pilots worked most of the night to repair their gundams.

Sometime in the very late night or early morning, Howard had shown up in the cargo hold. He had insisted that the pilots leave the work to the MS techs and go get some rest. After some hesitation, the gundam pilots relented and left the cargo hold to eat and attempt to sleep.

Aly had slept for less than five hours. She, along with the rest of the pilots, had had trouble sleeping that night. They all worried about the upcoming battle.

After she had finally given up on sleep, Aly had gone to the GPC where she found Duo on his way to the medical wing. Aly had offered to accompany him, knowing that he was very worried about Hilde.

On the way to the Medical wing, Duo had explained how he knew Hilde. The way he spoke about her, Aly could tell that she was a great person. Aly hoped that some day, perhaps when the war had ended, she could get to know Hilde.

"C'mon Duo. We should go get some breakfast." Aly put her hand on Duo's shoulder and squeezed it gently. "We will come back afterwards and see if she is awake yet." Aly said softly.

"You are right. I am not doing Hilde any good by starving myself." Duo said. He turned to Aly and smiled. She could easily see through the smile at his pain. His eyes were what gave it away. They did not have their usual glow.

Aly and Duo drifted off towards the cafeteria. They both glanced back once, silently wishing that Hilde would be awake when they returned.

-End of Chapter 7-

Author's Notes:

Hey Minna-san! Gomen nasai for taking so long to update. I got serious writer's enthusiasm block. When I got my motivation back on track, I wrote 6 pages of notes on the last few episodes of the series to write this chapter and the next one! I really hope you liked it. Please review! It means the world to me!

-AlyRain 


	9. Ch 8: Breaking News Brief

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A New Ally (1) Chapter 8: Breaking News Brief

It was Christmas Eve, A.C. 195. Duo and Aly were returning to the medical ward of the PeaceMillion after breakfast. They both silently hoped that Hilde would be awake when they arrived.

When they reached the medical ward, Duo stopped in front of the window looking into Hilde's room. His eyes grew wide with excitement. He pushed off the ground swiftly and flung open the door to Hilde's room, rushing in.

With a small smile, Aly slowly drifted into the room after the longhaired pilot. She decided Hilde must have been awake for him to be that excited.

Silently, Aly closed the door that Duo had left open. She leaned against the wall beside it and crossed her arms over her chest while she wordlessly watched the scene before her.

"Hilde! You're awake! Are you OK now? How do you feel? How long have you been awake?"

The doctor standing at the foot of Hilde's bed had been about to speak when Duo started talking in an enthusiastic rush. He looked as though he was not sure whether to be annoyed or amused by Duo's interruption.

Hilde laughed lightly, her eyes shinning warmly.

"I'm fine." Hilde glanced at the doctor and Duo followed her gaze.

"Oh. Sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt..." Duo said with a sheepish grin. The doctor opened his mouth to speak, but Hilde interrupted him.

"Hello." Hilde said with a warm smile at Aly. The IceAngel pilot was caught off guard the slightest bit. She had not been expecting anyone to notice her.

"Hello." Aly replied.

"I'm Hilde. I'm sorry I don't know your name. Duo, the king of polite behavior, here didn't bother to introduce us." Hilde said with a side-glance and a grin at Duo.

"Oh...Yeah. Sorry." The DeathScythe pilot grinned sheepishly again. Aly smirked. She could tell she was going to like Hilde.

"I'm Aly. I think he was about to speak." Aly said, nodding towards the doctor. He smiled gratefully at Aly. Hilde and Duo both looked at the doctor. They had forgotten he was even there.

"I simply wanted to give you some instructions. In the event that the medical wing is evacuated, I need you to cooperate with the med.-transport people. I don't want to risk your stitches getting ripped." The doctor said to Hilde.

"All right." Hilde said seriously.

"Do you have any questions for me?" The doctor asked.

"None that I can think of." Hilde said.

"All right then. I will leave you alone now. I know your friends are anxious to speak with you. I saw them waiting outside earlier." The doctor stepped out the door with a nod at Hilde before he closed it behind himself.

"Stitches huh? Sounds like fun." Duo drifted over and sat on the edge of Hilde's bed.

"Oh yeah. It's wonderful." Hilde said dryly. Duo grinned at Hilde.

"Hey. You don't have to stand all the way over there. Come here." Hilde said to Aly. She gestured towards the empty seat beside her bed.

"Thank you." Aly drifted over and sat down in the empty chair. Hilde nodded.

"What's going on in the outside world?" Hilde looked at Duo who was sitting on her other side.

"Not much. We think the next battle is going to start soon." Duo said gravely.

"I wish I could be out there helping you guys instead of stuck in this stupid bed." Hilde frowned and picked at the blanket on her lap.

"You have helped Hilde. The other pilots are busy going through that data you brought right now. They've already started forming some tactics based on it." Duo said in a reassuring tone.

"I wish I could have done more though..." Hilde said.

"Don't worry about it. You've helped enough. Now you need to help yourself get better." Duo said.

"I guess so." Hilde seemed disappointed.

"Oh stop it." Duo said.

"What?" Hilde asked.

"Quit feeling like you aren't helpful because you are." The longhaired pilot said.

"Duo's right. That data you stole from Libra really is helpful." Aly said. Hilde looked up then, surprised that Aly had spoken.

"Thanks." Hilde said with a soft smile. Aly nodded as a response.

There was a knock at the door. The trio turned to see Sally Po stick her head in the door.

"Hi. Sorry to bother you guys, but Duo and Aly, you're needed in the hanger. The other pilots are there, waiting for you. They're going to launch soon. And Ms. Schweiker, a med.-transport person will be here soon to take you to the shuttle." Sally said.

"Thanks." Duo said. Sally nodded and closed the door. Duo and Aly both stood up.

"I will see you as soon as the battle's over. OK Hilde?" Duo said as he and Aly drifted towards the door.

"OK. Don't do anything too crazy then." Hilde said.

"Who me?" Duo grinned mischievously.

"Crazy idiot." Hilde shook her head in dismay, but she was still smiling. Duo drifted out the door, his laughter trailing behind him. Aly was about to drift out but stopped and glanced back in.

"I hope you feel better Hilde." She said softly.

"Thanks. I hope I can talk to you more someday. Perhaps when this war's over." Hilde said.

"Sure." Aly smiled and nodded. She closed the door behind herself and drifted after Duo, towards the cargo hold of the PeaceMillion.

Duo and Aly went down the hallway in silence. It was not until they passed by Heero and Wufei's room that Aly spoke up.

"Do you think Heero is OK?" Aly asked.

"Huh? Heero? Yeah he'll be fine. He just went to rescue his beloved Relena." Duo said with a smirk.

"Beloved Relena?" Aly asked.

"Relena Peacecraft Dorlain, that girl he went after as soon as he found out she was on Libra." Duo shrugged.

"Relena? Heero's in love with Relena? I've known Relena since we were both little. I can't really imagine her with Heero." Aly looked a bit skeptical.

"Not really beloved. It's just that...well...Heero acts a little strange whenever he's around her. Truth be told, I'm a little surprised he went after her. She practically stalks him." Duo said with another smirk.

"Relena? I can't see her as the stalker type. I know she has always been a bit sheltered...but I still can not picture her stalking someone." Aly said with a frown.

"Well, maybe not stalked...She just seems to appear wherever Heero is. It's strange. I don't know what to think of it really." Duo said.

"Hrm..." Was Aly's only response.

The pair had reached the door leading to the cargo hold. Duo opened the door and was about to pass through, but stopped. He stood in front of Aly, blocking the doorway.

"Aly I need to ask you to do me a big favor." Duo said.

"What kind of favor?" Aly asked. She was curious of what Duo would say.

"I want you to guard the med.-transport shuttle. I want you to make sure Hilde makes it to MOII safely." Duo said.

"What? I can't. I have to help you and the other pilots with this battle." Aly said.

"Aly...please. I-I want to know that Hilde is safe." Duo said. Aly frowned.

"If you want to make sure she is safe, you should escort the shuttle. The others will understand." Aly said.

"No. You have to do it."

"Why me?"

"Because...I know you will come back." Duo said, looking down at the ground.

"What do you mean?" Aly asked. Duo paused and concentrated on the floor. He seemed to be thinking hard on how to voice his feelings.

"It gets harder everyday to fight. The odds are always against us...If I go with Hilde, I don't know if I can force myself to come back and fight. But, I know you will come back." Duo said.

Aly was silent for a moment. She wasn't sure what to think. She did not believe Duo would really back out on his fellow pilots. On the other hand, Aly knew what battles could do to people. The bravest person could run away in fear.

"Fine. I will do it. But, I am coming back as soon as Hilde's safely on MOII. I am going to help you and the others fight." Aly said with her lips drawn in a look of determination.

"Thank you." Duo said. He smiled sadly at Aly. She nodded at him.

Without uttering another word, the two drifted into the cargo hold and onto the catwalk. Technicians standing on the catwalk handed them both their flight helmets before drifting out and away from the danger of the MS thrusters.

Aly pulled on her helmet and drifted into the cockpit of her gundam. Sitting down in her seat, she pulled on her shoulder harness and hit several buttons on the control panel. The door of the cockpit hissed shut and her three screens came to life with an eerie blue glow.

Pushing more buttons, Aly's center screen showed the view in front of her gundam. She could see that the other gundams and Noin's white Taurus were revving up and preparing to launch as the hatch slowly opened.

Blowing a wisp of hair out of her face, Aly connected a line to the PeaceMillion's control room. An image of Howard came onto her left screen.

"Hey Aly," Howard accosted. "What's up?"

"I am going to escort the med.-transport shuttle to MOII. I need you to tell me where it's leaving from." Aly said.

"It's leaving from the South hatch in twenty minutes." Howard said.

"Thank you." Aly blared the thrusters of her gundam and zoomed out of the PeaceMillion, flying around the other side to wait for the small shuttle to exit the South hatch.

"No problem. Anything else I can do for you?" Howard asked.

"Yeah. I need you to relay images of the battle to me. I want to stay posted on everything that happens." Aly said mechanically.

"OK, I will send the feed now." Howard said. His image was replaced by several different views of the battle in progress around Libra.

"I will let you know if I find out any cross information from the opposing sides too." Howard said.

"Thanks."

"Good luck." There was a click and the line of communication went silent. Aly watched as an image of the DeathScythe appeared on her left screen. Duo sliced through one of the mobile dolls in front of himself. Before zooming out of view again.

Glancing at her center screen, Aly could see the South hatch slowly opening in preparation of the shuttle launch. The IceAngel pilot knew it would be a long time before the shuttle actually came out of the hatch after it opened.

Rapidly pushing buttons on her control panel, Aly calculated the distance from the PeaceMillion to MOII. A read-out on her right screen informed her that it would take ten to twenty minutes to reach MOII. She looked at her left screen again and frowned. The HeavyArms and DeathScythe were both flitting on and off screen, followed by brilliant explosions as the two gundams destroyed more mobile suits.

With little effort, Aly jumped down from the cockpit of her gundam. She drifted slowly to the ground, landing to the left of the IceAngel's left foot.

Surveying the port around her, Aly located the exit leading to the commercial shuttle ports. Aly had landed her gundam in a private dock. She had not wanted anyone to notice the gundam laying around on MOII.

Less than five minutes later, Aly was accompanying Hilde in an ambulance ride to the hospital of MOII. She had already explained Duo's request to the ex-OZ soldier. However, Aly had left out Duo's reasons for not going personally.

The ambulance stopped and Aly jumped out, waiting as Hilde was wheeled out and into the sliding glass doors of the hospital.

Once Hilde and Aly were alone in Hilde's hospital room, Hilde grew anxious. The ex-pilot instructed Aly to turn on the small TV across the room so the two girls could see the news on the battle.

The pilot of the IceAngel did as she was asked. Aly switched the TV on and stepped back to sit on the edge of Hilde's bed while they both studied the screen.

On the screen, the ex-OZ pilot and the gundam pilot saw images of the violent battle outside of Libra. A voice came onto the news, breaking the silence.

"Hello, this is Max McConnel reporting live from our International News studio here on the L1 Colony. At this current stage of the battle, both White Fang and OZ seem to be evenly matched. However, just a little while ago, four mysterious mobile suits entered the battle. These suits, which officials believe to be the same rebel gundam pilots from yesterday's battle, seem to be helping the OZ side gain an advantage over White Fang.

This just in, it appears that Libra has started moving around MOII and is heading towards Earth. Also, the PeaceMillion, the large ship that was nearly destroyed by the Libra base two days ago, has started moving around the battlefield and towards Libra..." The reported explained.

Aly stopped listening and turned to Hilde. The former OZ pilot gave Aly a slight nod before the IceAngel pilot sprinted out the door at full speed. She was glad for the colony's gravity; it allowed faster travel than floating on PeaceMillion.

In ten minutes, Aly had reached the shuttle port. Out of breath, yet charged with adrenaline, Aly flopped down in the cockpit of her gundam. The engines roared to life as the girl rapidly pushed buttons, prepping the gundam for takeoff out of the shuttle port.

Howard appeared on Aly's right screen. She glanced at it briefly while trying to focus on her hasty departure from MOII.

"Aly! Where've you been? I tried contacting you earlier." Howard said.

"I was checking on Hilde. Had to keep a promise." Aly said simply.

"Well, we've decided to fly the PeaceMillion into Libra's main cannon. We're hoping to destroy it that way." Howard said.

"You're what?" Aly was shocked, but the surprise did not reach her face.

"We're sending the PeaceMillion into Libra's main cannon. Everyone has already been evacuated. They're heading for MOII right now." Howard explained. Aly noted then that Howard was wearing a space suit.

"What about the other pilots? Any news?" Aly changed the subject.

"Not yet. But, for some reason Wufei is fighting Treize." Sally Po came on screen, replacing Howard's image. "Here I will send you a relay." Sally disappeared off screen. An image of the Shenlong and the Talgeese II came onto Aly's screen.

"We don't really know what else is going on aside from that. None of the other pilots have contacted us." Howard spoke again.

"I am headed back towards the battle field now." Aly said.

"Good lu-brace yourself!" Howard shouted. The connection went dead as the PeaceMillion crashed into Libra's main cannon.

Swearing under her breath, Aly glanced at her left screen, bringing up several news stations. One in particular caught the girl's eye. It was the same station she had been watching in Hilde's hospital room. She hit several buttons, maximizing the image and minimizing all the others to the bottom corner of the screen.

"I have an announcement that was just released from OZ; the OZ leader, Treize Kushrenada, has just been killed. His mobile suit was just destroyed by one of the gundams. We do not know anything else about OZ at the moment.

We have just been informed that the PeaceMillion has crashed into Libra's main cannon. Three gundams have just entered Libra. Officials believe that the gundams plan to destroy Libra from the inside." Max McConnel, the reporter said.

With a quick movement of her fingers across the keypad, Aly turned off all of the news stations. She brought all of her screens back to focus on the battle that was directly in front of her. With her adrenaline pumping, Aly flew straight into the battle, heading for Libra with as much speed as possible.

Aly jerked at the controls of her gundam as it wielded the beam staff in both hands. She knew about the plan to dismantle Libra from within, but she still felt that she needed to speak to her fellow pilots personally and find out what was going on.

In a matter of moments, Aly had caught up with Libra. She sent out a communication line, searching for one of her fellow pilots within Libra. At that moment, she saw the HeavyArms, DeathScythe, and SandRock gundams zoom out of Libra.

"Duo!" Aly called as she connected a line with him.

"Hey Aly." Duo said as his face appeared on her right screen.

"What's the news?" Aly asked.

"Heero's off somewhere nearby, fighting Milliardo Peacecraft. Some crazy girl stabbed Quatre. Trowa dismantled the Mobile Doll system. I dropped the professors off with the PeaceMillion. They are working out some crazy plan to throw off Libra's balance...What the hell...?" Duo trailed off. Aly's eyebrows knitted together as his image was replaced by that of the Epyon and the Wing Zero battling. A strong, yet soft female voice came onto the line.

"The battle you are witnessing has no significance to either Earth or the colonies. But it's necessary just the same. Because in reality, it's a battle to save the colonies.

This year in After Colony 195, the history of battle is finally about to come to an end. Unless these two continue to fight, peace will never be achieved.

Can you feel it? Can you feel the misery of this combat? And can you see the peace that awaits us?

This battle is making each one of us look for a solution to secure the peace." Lady Une stopped speaking.

Aly's gundam was knocked backwards as an explosion erupted from Libra. She saw that it was traveling away from the Earth.

"Was that the Professors' crazy plan?" Aly muttered.

"Guess so." Duo chuckled. Aly watched as a chunk of Libra continued to fall towards the Earth. The Epyon and the Wing Zero both flew inside; still locked in a fierce battle.

Quatre, who had opened a line between all of the gundam pilots, called out to Heero. The remaining four pilots rushed towards the falling Libra piece.

Heero contacted Quatre, informing him of his decision to destroy the Libra piece's power system. The four other pilots, along with the Maganac Corps, who had miraculously appeared, attempted in vain to smash up the deadly Libra piece.

Milliardo Peacecraft destroyed the power system, and all of the gundam pilots and the Maganac Corps flew away to a safe distance.

"You think that worked?" Duo asked Aly.

"I'm not sure..." She frowned. Keeping her gundam hovering close to the DeathScythe, SandRock, and HeavyArms, Aly watched the Libra piece as the explosions tore through it. The block continued to fall towards the Earth. Aly felt her heart racing. She, like the other pilots, was not sure what to do.

That was when Wufei reappeared. He was carrying the Wing Zero's buster riffle. Wufei gave the beam weapon to Heero before he hovered beside the others in anxious anticipation.

Heero blared the thrusters of his Wing Zero gundam. He was racing to get ahead of the Libra block as it entered the Earth's atmosphere.

"I hope he makes it..." Aly heard someone say over the com-link. She was not sure who had said it, but she knew she agreed with them.

Heero had the Wing Zero facing the Libra block as it plummeted down towards the Earth. The friction from falling was tearing up his gundam. But he did not let that stop him as he fired his buster rifle at the Libra block.

"Ore wa..." Aly realized Heero had been speaking to himself, but it was barely audible on the com-link.

"Ore wa..." Heero repeated softly. He fired at the Libra block right as he shouted out, "Ore wa shine nai!"

The com-link went silent. Quatre and the other pilots watched as the Libra block exploded from the blast Heero had fired. They began to feel their stomachs sink when Heero had not returned.

"Where...?" Aly whispered.

"He made it! You've done it Heero!" Duo exclaimed in happiness. Aly let out the breath she had not realized she was holding. On her center screen, she could see Heero's gundam flying into space in flight mode.

"Yeah naturally." Wufei said with a smirk.

"Heh...he's quite the guy." Trowa added.

"Now I get it! It's Heero who's the heart of outer space!" Quatre exclaimed.

"Mission complete." Heero said monotonously. Aly heard all of this, but she did not move or comment. She simply watched the Wing Zero as it disappeared into the darkness of space.

On Christmas Day, A.C. 195, Aly sat in the window seat of her hotel room in Tokyo, Japan. With her cheek against the cool glass, she watched as hundreds of people walked by on the busy streets below. Everyone was cheerful and festive. Christmas was not a very big holiday in Japan, but all of the people were feeling more like celebrating that year since the Eve Wars were finally over.

"Merry Christmas Aly." A warm voice said from behind her. Aly looked over her shoulder and saw Quatre standing behind her. She could barely make him out in the low light cast from the window.

"I thought you were supposed to be resting. You were only in the hospital for an hour." Aly said with a smirk.

"I was. But, I don't feel that bad. Just tired. The doctors said I just can't exert myself. And I have to take all the painkillers they gave me for the next few weeks. Besides, I wanted to come see you. Duo said you had locked yourself up in your room." Quatre smiled innocently.

"How'd you get in anyway?" Aly quirked a suspicious eyebrow at him. "Duo picked the locks didn't he." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yes. He did." Quatre said with a shy smile.

"One of these days..." Aly let the threat hang in the air.

"May I sit down?" Quatre nodded towards the window seat. Aly slid over and Quatre sat beside her. The pair sat in silence for several long moments while they looked out the window at the streets below.

Aly laid her head gently on Quatre's shoulder. He smiled softly without looking at her. With a bit of a strain caused by his stab wound, the SandRock pilot put his arm around her shoulders.

"What are you going to do now that the war is over?" Quatre asked, breaking the silence.

"I guess I will go home to L7. Start where I left off. Only now, I won't have to pretend I have a normal life. I can have a real one." Aly replied softly.

When Quatre did not respond, Aly felt her stomach sink. She felt guilty for purposely not including him in her plans for the future.

"What about you?" She finally asked.

"I think I'll go back to L4. Help take care of my father's business...now that he's gone." Quatre said.

"It's so weird. It seems like the war ended so fast...almost makes me wonder if it really ended or I imagined it all."

"I know what you mean." Quatre said empathetically.

"What do you think the others will do?"

"Not sure. It was strange to say good bye to them all. We were brothers-in-arms, but I guess a part of me wished we were closer than that." The blond boy sighed sadly. Aly nodded silently.

"What I hate most of all is that you can't come with me." Quatre said softly. Aly felt the same guilty pang as well as a wave of nostalgia pass through her.

That had been one of her main reasons for shutting herself up in her room. A part of her had not wanted to deal with parting from her friends. She had only found them a matter of weeks before. And, since the war was over, she was not sure how often she would see them again.

"It won't be forever." Aly smiled softly at Quatre. Grabbing his hand in hers, she laced her fingers through his and gave his hand a light squeeze. Quatre smiled back.

"Yeah. Not forever..." Quatre said as they both looked out the window again.

In the months that followed the Eve Wars of After Colony 195, many peace conferences were held between the Earth and the colonies. The Earth and the colonies passed a new formation of the Earth's Sphere Unified Nation. The pilots and soldiers who had fought so hard to obtain peace hoped that this new peace agreement would last...

On July 30th, A.C. 196, Heero, Aly, and Quatre were walking down a less crowded street on the outer edge of the city of Tokyo, Japan. The three pilots had all run into each other at the shuttle port. They had all received a recent message from Duo asking them to meet at a safe house in Tokyo. With few words of reunion, the trio had decided to travel to the safe house together.

For a short distance, the trio was forced to walk through one of the busier sections of Tokyo with the large multimedia screens and bright neon lights. A gathering crowd around a news screen caught Aly's attention. She froze in the middle of the street as she noticed a picture of the L7 colony had appeared on the screen.

Walking closer to the screen so she could hear, Aly frowned. Heero and Quatre had noticed Aly's sudden pause and had stopped a ways behind her, blending in to the crowd.

"We interrupt the current news to bring you this breaking news brief. It seems that the L7 Colony is experiencing some technical problems. There have been several minor explosions on the colony, and officials say that the entire colony could explode at any moment.

Emergency shuttles have already evacuated sectors three through five. However, the capital of the colony and the rest of sectors one and two are still waiting for emergency shuttles..." The female reporter paused for a breath.

Aly felt her eyes growing wide. Her house on L7 was in sector 1, and her father's office at the international embassy was in sector 2.

The satellite image of L7 showed it glow eerily. As Aly's eyes widened in horror, she realized that it was the first wave of an explosion. The colony burst outwards in a tsunami of orange and red. Snowy static filled the screen as the satellite was destroyed from the blast.

"We have just had it confirmed. The L7 Colony just exploded...god...all those people." The reporter seemed to be speaking to herself.

"No..." Aly stepped back further into the crowd. She could not hear any of the people around her as they began speaking all at once.

"No..." She repeated. She began shaking her head slowly as she stared blankly at the screen.

"Aly? Aly are you OK?" Quatre started to reach for Aly's shoulder, but he was blocked by the crowd as it shifted slightly.

"NO!" Aly screamed. She turned away from the news screen. Shoving her way through the crowd despite several startled protests, Aly sprinted away from the lights of the city.

"Heero! You have to stop her! She's lost it!" Quatre called to Heero who had managed to escape the confines of the crowd. Heero frowned, nodded once, then sprinted off in the direction Aly had run.

Heero had been running for nearly five minutes and had not found Aly. He paused to glance over his shoulder, realizing how far away from the city he had traveled. The thought occurred to him that perhaps he had gone the wrong way. Brushing back the self-doubt, he took off running again.

It was not until Heero reached Tokyo Bay that he found Aly. She was walking towards the edge of a pier, ignorant of the crashing surf below. Pursing his lips, Heero watched her for several seconds while he considered his options. Not wanting to upset her already shocked system, Heero silently and meticulously walked up behind Aly.

The young girl reached the edge of the pier, one step from walking all the way off. With lightning fast reflexes, Heero reached out and grabbed her around the waist, jerking her back from the edge.

Snapping to attention, Aly looked down at the crashing surf below with wide, startled eyes. Quickly realizing how close she had been to falling off the pier, Aly started to shake violently.

"It's all right. You're safe now." Heero said softly. 'What the hell am I saying?' Heero mentally growled at himself.

Aly spun away from the edge of the pier, burying her face in her rescuer's chest as she started to cry uncontrollably.

"I-I would have fallen if you hadn't..." Aly said shakily, between sobs that racked her body.

"You're safe now." Heero said. He slowly put his arms around Aly in an attempt to comfort her. The perfect soldier felt very awkward. He was not used to comforting people. And, the whole situation made him feel uneasy.

The emotionally overwhelmed girl slowly sank to a sitting position on her knees and Heero kneeled down with her. Instinct told him that he needed to keep his arms around her until she stopped shaking. That instinct made Heero feel even more self-alienated by his own reasoning.

"No it's not all right. Heero...you don't understand...I've never been alone before..." Aly whispered.

Heero was unsure what to say. He had always been alone. It never really occurred to him that someone would have such a problem with being on their own; especially a former gundam pilot.

'But she was always the innocent one...' A small voice in the back of Heero's head rationalized. Glancing down at Aly when she had ceased shaking, Heero tried to see her face. He realized she had fallen asleep.

Getting to his feet slowly, Heero gathered Aly in his arms and walked back down the peer. Quatre ran up to him. He was panting from running all the way there.

"What...happened?" Quatre asked, studying Aly's limp form in Heero's arms.

"She almost walked off the edge. I pulled her back. When she realized what almost happened, I guess she passed out." Heero said monotonously.

"Where are you taking her?" Quatre fell into step beside Heero.

"Back to the safe house." Heero replied.

"Then what?" Quatre had finally gotten his breathing back to normal.

"I'm not sure. She needs to get somewhere away from media attention. I think I will take her back to L1 with me after the meeting with the others." Heero replied.

Quatre's eyebrows disappeared beneath his bangs. He could not believe that Heero, of all people was being so considerate.

"I guess that's the best thing for her." Quatre said as they reached the safe house.

The blonde boy knocked on the door. Duo was the one who answered it. He took one look at Aly and glared daggers at Heero.

"What did you do?" Duo exclaimed.

"Nothing." Heero shoved past Duo and set Aly down on the couch. The other two pilots, Wufei and Trowa, walked in from the kitchen.

"What happened to her?" Trowa tilted his head towards Aly who lay very still on the couch.

"When she found out about the L7 explosion, she freaked out and took off running. Heero stopped her right as she was about to walk off the pier. She realized what she had almost done and passed out." Quatre explained.

"She will be fine. She just needs to rest." Trowa said as he brushed Aly's hair away from her face.

"All right. Then...I guess I will explain why I had you all meet here." Duo said. Looking carefully at Aly, he decided to lead the way back to the kitchen where they had left their drinks behind. The former gundam pilots gathered around the island and waited for Duo to explain.

"I wanted us all to unanimously decide what to do now that it's a time of peace... All mobile suits have been ordered to be destroyed. I was not sure if I wanted to destroy the gundams though." Duo said.

"As much as I hate to part with SandRock, perhaps it is best to get rid of the gundams." Quatre said thoughtfully.

"That would be wise, but how do we do it?" Wufei asked. The group fell silent as they all thought.

"Well...we could send them into the sun...with one of the L4 disposal blocks." Quatre offered.

The group considered his idea for several long moments. After a long gap of wordless debate, they all decided that they would send their gundams to Quatre by that December.

Without further discussion, their little meeting was concluded. Everyone went their separate ways, not even bothering to say their good byes to each other. The reunion had been very brief. All though the pilots all had slight hopes of a warmer reunion, they hoped that they would not need to come together again. For that would mean that another battle needed to be fought.

August 1st A.C. 196, Aly followed as Heero led the way into his L1 apartment. It was very late in the night and both of the pilots were exhausted. They had spent the previous day on planes around the world before finally taking a shuttle to L1.

When Aly had awoken in the safe house, Heero had explained to her Quatre's idea for the disposal of the gundams as well as his personal idea on bringing her with him to L1.

Aly had simply accepted all of the information Heero gave her. She did not really comment either way. Her very mind and soul felt numb from the previous night's events.

The IceAngel pilot had been too wrapped up in her own depressed thoughts to sleep at all in the previous two days. Heero had a bit more energy than her after taking an hour long, power nap on the shuttle ride to L1.

Heero half dragged Aly to the bed. She had been dead on her feet from two nights of emotional stress and lack of sleep. The young female pilot barely had the energy to argue as Heero laid her down on his bed and pulled her shoes off.

The WingZero pilot pulled the covers over Aly, then went to the closest and pulled out a medium-sized Japanese futon. He laid it out on the floor beside the bed and threw a blanket on top. Reaching past Aly to grab one of the extra pillows on the bed, he saw her struggling to sit up.

"Lay down." Heero ordered, but he did not say it with much emphasis.

"I can't sleep on the bed while you sleep on the floor. It's bad enough you had to practically carry me in here." Aly said. Her voice sounded strained.

With a lot of effort, Aly pushed the covers back and sat up all the way, turning to slide off the bed. Heero pushed her back down and pulled the covers back up.

"Sleep." Heero commanded, his tone stern that time.

The female pilot opened her mouth to speak again, but Heero cut her off.

"Don't worry about it. I rotate between sleeping on the futon and sleeping on the bed. You are not inconveniencing me." Heero said as he spread the covers out. He switched off the dim lamp on the nightstand before lying down and pulling his blanket up under his arms.

"Heero." Aly whispered, trying desperately to fight back drowsiness.

"Yeah?" Heero asked.

"Thanks." Aly said before she fell dead asleep.

"You're welcome." Heero said to the empty air. He rolled over on his side and fell into a light sleep.

-End Of Chapter 8-

Author's Notes:

Hey Minna-san! Sorry this chapter took so long. I went to work with my mom a couple weeks ago. I stole her laptop and wrote 7 pages while she worked. Then, before I got a chance to transfer the chapter to my computer, my mom reformatted her laptop.

So, I had to rewrite all I could from memory and then add the rest I had not gotten to. What this means is that I am sorry for the technical problems that cause late chapters.

I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. The first part I wrote based on my notes from the final episode of the American version of the series. (That speech from Une I really copied word for word!)

If anyone would like to know what Heero said before he blew up Libra, it translates to "I will...I will...I will not die!" That quote was actually taken from the Japanese version. I thought it was more believable that Heero would encourage himself in his native tongue rather than in English.

Oh, and, I have decided that I may start answering people's questions or responding to comments in the end of each chapter from now on. As always, questions and comments are welcome (and encouraged!).

Well, that's all my babbling for this chapter. I hope you liked it Minna-san! Please R&R it means a great deal to me!

-AlyRain

(October 14th, 2003) 


	10. Ch 9: Clothes Bring People Together

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing! There...I said it! Now keep your lawsuits away from me!

A New Ally(1) Chapter 9: Clothes Bring People Together

Artificial sunlight streamed in through the opened blinds of Heero Yuy's bedroom window. The teenaged Aly Tayeari blinked her eyes open. She squinted and frowned at the mid-day light.

Flipping the covers back, she sat up and rotated her body, setting her feet gently on the floor. With a split-second pause to acknowledge Heero's absence, Aly laid her chin on the heels on her palms and stared out the window.

The scene before her was not of any interest. Cars were moving steadily on the street below and people were bustling down the sidewalks as though they had no care in the world. Not that they should have had any worries. After all, the war was over and peace was slowly ascending throughout the colonies and earth.

Aly was not really looking at anything outside the window. Her entire field of vision was blurry and unfocused as her thoughts drifted elsewhere.

She frowned again at the outside light. The artificial sunlight seemed too bright for her numb feeling mind and energy-drained body.

The girl finally gave up on trying to think. Her brain felt far too fogged and her stomach complained noisily from lack of nourishment. She opted to venture outside of the bedroom in search of food.

Dropping her hands to her sides, she stood slowly and stretched. As she made her way to the door, she rolled her head around to try to pop a few kinks out of her neck.

Out of habit, Aly closed the bedroom door behind her before walking down the short hallway and into the living room. She felt slightly more alert after moving that short distance and took the opportunity to quickly observe the room before her.

There was only three pieces of furniture in the entire room. A black couch, that appeared to be made out of leather or a good imitation of leather, sat against the back wall. In front of the couch was an oak colored coffee table with a glass top that had Heero's laptop closed up and stationed on top of it. Against the wall opposite the couch stood a short, oak armoire that was opened to reveal a blank, medium-sized, flat-screen television.

Everything was clean and free from dust. The living room did not seem very cozy with its bare furnishings and the same dull, gray carpeting that was placed throughout the apartment.

Turning to her left, Aly saw the attached kitchen. There was a tall bar top that separated the kitchen from the living room. The bar had only three stools; all that would fit with the short length of it. Behind the bar, she could see into the small kitchen where Heero had been standing with his back to her, pulling a teakettle off of the stove.

Without turning around, Heero spoke briefly to Aly. She wondered how he had known she was there. Her footsteps were always silent, even in her drowsy state after waking.

"Would you like some tea?" Heero asked.

"Yes, please." Aly said as she stared curiously at his backside. Heero poured some hot water from the teakettle into two small teacups with tea leafs already in the bottom of each. He set the teakettle back on the stove before returning his attention to the teacups and stirring the contents of both.

Satisfied, Heero set the spoon in the sink then walked over to the bar, setting both cups down on top of it. He turned around again and pulled a plate and a small stack of napkins off of the counter. Aly pulled out one of the barstools and sat down.

With the plate in one hand Heero walked around the bar and sat down on the stool beside Aly. He set the plate down in front of himself, then spread out two napkins. On each one, he placed two pieces of wheat toast from the plate.

Pushing the plate away, Heero slid one teacup and one toast topped napkin towards Aly. She had watched the whole process with curiosity. It seemed that everything Heero ever did was careful and calculated. It fascinated her.

"Thanks." Aly took both the cup and napkin from him gratefully. Heero just glanced at her emotionlessly and nodded once before concentrating on his own food.

Aly looked away from him and back to the food before her. She blew on the cup before bringing it to her lips and taking a tentative sip.

With a slow sense of familiarity, Aly recognized the hot liquid as kochya, the traditional Japanese tea. She recalled that Kenichi had often made it for her before he had died.

The memory sent a pang of remorse through her stomach. She set the teacup down and frowned at it.

"You don't like kochya?" Heero asked, glancing at her when he noticed she was frowning at the teacup.

"No...suki desu." Aly mumbled. She looked up and met his gaze, wondering if she had offended Heero after he had fixed the tea and toast for her.

"Suki desu? I did not know you understood Japanese." Heero said. He seemed more like he was commenting to himself than to her.

"Not well. I learned a bit from a friend who also made me kochya." Aly stated. She took another drink of tea. Heero did not respond, and Aly did not speak further. The rest of their little meal was spent in silence.

When they both were finished, Heero gathered up the teacups, plate, and napkins. He threw away the napkins, then proceeded to rinse the dishes in the sink.

"I should be doing that." Aly spoke her thoughts out loud.

"Don't worry about it." Heero stated plainly. He rinsed the dishes before gently placing them into the dishwasher.

"Well, I should be doing something to help out. I stole your bed and then you made me lunch." Aly said, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Heero dried his hands on a dishtowel and leaned against the kitchen counter with his arms folded across his chest. He studied the sincere expression on Aly's face before lowering his head in thought.

"You will probably be here a while before the media finds someone else to hound...If you really want to help, we can work out a system." Heero said, clearly thinking things over inside his head.

"Whatever you think would be best. It's your home." Aly shrugged. Heero did not acknowledge her comment. He remained silent with downcast eyes.

"How about each week, one of us cleans and the other cooks. Then, we will switch off every week." Heero said finally, looking up to meet Aly's gaze.

"Sounds fair enough. Who does which first?" Aly asked.

"Since I bought the groceries this morning, I will cook first." Heero replied.

"Fine." Aly gave a nod to show her agreement.

Heero sat down on the couch and turned on his laptop. Aly raked her hand through her hair. She frowned at how greasy it felt.

"Mind if I take a shower?"

"Go ahead. I got you a toothbrush at the store. It's on the counter in the bathroom." Heero said, typing swiftly, without looking up.

"Mind if I borrow some clothes?" Aly asked. Heero looked up then and eyed Aly's clothes. It was the same outfit she had been wearing the day before and had slept in the previous night.

"There may be something in my closet. Feel free to look." Heero went back to his laptop.

"Thanks." Aly said. When Heero did not reply she turned away and left to search for some clothes in his room.

August 8th, A.C. 196:

Aly grunted as she struggled to open the front door to Heero's apartment. She had one laundry basket balanced against her hip and the other one on the floor as she opened the door with one hand and tried to hold it open by leaning against it.

Holding the one basket in both hands again, she shifted her weight away from the door and tried to push the other basket outside with her foot. The door started to close behind her so she moved quickly to stop it with one hand. In the process, she tipped the basket in her arms too far, causing half of its contents to spill onto the floor.

With a frustrated sigh, Aly let go of the door, allowing it to close itself, then bent down to pick up the clothes she had dropped. Lifting the basket once again, Aly opened the door, trying to successfully maneuver both baskets outside the way she had intended to before. Once again, Aly started to feel the door close before she could scoot the second basket out the door.

A hand grabbed the door before it could close. Aly glanced over her shoulder to see Heero holding it for her. He pulled the door open and held it while she stepped outside. Closing the door behind himself, Heero grabbed the basket Aly had been sliding along the floor and picked it up.

"Thought you could use some help." Heero said in response to Aly's curious stare. Without another word, he started off in the direction of the elevator. Aly shrugged to herself and followed.

In the laundry room of Heero's apartment building, on the ground floor, Heero and Aly sorted through the dirty laundry, making different loads. The pair did not speak as they worked together to start the laundry.

Once all of the washers were running, Aly hopped on top of an empty one across from the three they were using. She pulled her legs up and sat in the lotus position while she looked around the room.

The laundry room was about the size of a small laundry mat. It was open twenty-four hours to residents of the apartment building. Aly and Heero were the only ones there at the time. It was silent except for the noise produced by the washers.

Aly was starting to get used to silence. She had been staying with Heero for seven days, and they had not spoken much in all of that time. Her first day there, Heero had taken Aly to a small clothing shop to buy new clothes, but that was the only time she had left the apartment. The only reason she had gone at all was because Heero had not wanted to have to buy her underwear for her, or so Aly assumed.

They had not spoken except out of necessity. It was very awkward for Aly to have stayed with a stranger for an entire week and not been able to speak to them about much of anything. But, Aly knew it must have been awkward for Heero too. So, she had accepted the silence and tied to get used to it.

A noise to Aly's left caught her attention. She looked over to see Heero sitting on one of the empty washers beside their three. He was diagonally across from her and seemed to be staring out at nothing.

"Thanks...for helping me with the laundry." Aly spoke up.

"Hn." Heero answered without looking at her. Aly looked away from him and laid her chin in her palms as she watched the laundry swishing past the front window of the washer in stormy sea of soapy water.

"Do you miss him?"

"Hm?" Aly was surprised to hear Heero had spoken to her.

"Do you miss your father?" Heero reiterated. Aly looked over to see he was looking at her. It was strange that he was suddenly speaking to her about something personal. They had not really talked about anything remotely personal since their conversation on the PeaceMillion.

The IceAngel pilot wondered if she had been correct in assuming Heero was so detached because of his soldier's instincts. And, after the war had ended, he was trying to show more emotion. She frowned thoughtfully, considering his question.

"Yes. He was the only family I had left." Aly answered honestly. Heero looked down; he appeared to be thinking.

"Is that why you said you were alone?" Again, Aly had been caught off guard. She really was unsure where Heero was going with his questions, but she hoped that by answering them, there would be less silence between the two in the future.

"Yes." Aly said after several seconds. She looked down, lost in her own memories of that day.

Heero was lost in his own thoughts as well. He had to admit he was still curious about how Aly felt towards the idea of being alone. Heero had been alone for so long, he had trouble picturing what it was like not to be.

In a way, he had not been completely alone. He had had his fellow pilots with him throughout most of the war. However, deep down, Heero knew it was not quite the same as what Aly had had. Aly had a family to go back to and she had close friends to turn to. Heero on the other hand, was only a brother-in-arms. He did not have those same connections that Aly did.

It struck Heero as odd, that Aly said she was alone. She still had Quatre, Duo, and Trowa. They would always be there for her if she needed someone to turn to. Heero had seen that in Quatre's eyes the day Aly's father had died. If Quatre were not so important in the public eye, he would have been more than willing to take Aly in the way Heero had.

The WingZero pilot concluded that it must have all tied in to Aly's innocence. She felt alone because she had never been without her father; she had always had a home and a family. It was a bond that Heero would never really understand. He would never understand what it was like to have a family, a home, and close friends who all looked after you.

For the first time, Heero realized that he was not only curious about Aly's relationships with his fellow pilots and her father, but he was also a bit jealous. He wanted to know more, in hopes that he would understand it better.

"Will you tell me about him?" Heero finally asked.

"What do you want to know?" The IceAngel pilot looked up at him, one eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"I want to know what it's like to have a father. To know you're not alone." Heero said. The dark haired boy felt angry with himself for asking those questions. It should not have mattered to him. He should not felt the need to talk to the girl or find out about her family life.

Heero was the perfect soldier, he was alone, and being alone was what he knew best. But, Aly was changing everything. There was someone depending on him, someone living with him. He was in a situation he had never been trained for. Never had he expected to be stuck living with an innocent.

Aly studied Heero closely. She was intrigued by his questions. Never had she really discussed her family life with anyone, not even Quatre. But, she saw no harm in talking to Heero about it. She hoped it would even help him come out of his shell a little bit.

"My father and I were not very close. We had a somewhat strange relationship really..." Aly began. She was having a hard time explaining what she meant.

"How so?"

"Well...Based on what I have seen, with other families, we were not that close. We talked to each other in more of a business like fashion. And...he was not a very hands-on parent."

"Not hands-on?" Heero looked a bit curious about that. He wondered if she'd meant he never hit her.

"I had two friends. They had a daughter. And, there were always hugs and kisses...and just, more friendliness about their relationship with her. My father and I were not like that." The IceAngel pilot shrugged at Heero.

"Hn." Heero replied. He looked down again in thought.

"Then why do you miss him so much?" Heero looked up at Aly again, trying to read her expressions.

"Well I..." Aly trailed off. She had never really thought about why, she had just felt that way. "Maybe it was this obligatory thing. Where...you have to love your parents, in spite of how awkward your relationship may be. And...he really is all the family I have." The young girl tried to explain how she felt without confusing the both of them.

"Were you jealous of your friends?"

"Sometimes... I had never really known that kind of relationship. So, it was strange to miss something I had never experienced."

The WingZero pilot did not ask anymore questions about Aly's family. For the time being, he felt content with her answers.

"Were you always alone?" Aly asked in a careful voice. She noticed a strange expression cross Heero's face. It was gone almost as fast as it had appeared. She pondered what it had meant. Had it been sadness, surprise? Or perhaps somewhere in between? Her thoughts were halted when Heero spoke.

"For a while I thought I had someone." The WingZero pilot responded once he got over his shock. He looked like he was trying to bore holes into the floor tiles by glaring at them.

"I'm sorry. I was just curious..." Aly said, feeling guilty for upsetting him. Heero's expression went blank. He looked back up at Aly with an emotionless face.

"It's fine." Heero said.

"OK." Aly studied Heero's face. It was the same expression she had seen when she met him. His face looked emotionless, except for his eyes. His eyes had a haunted look. Their intensity unnerved her.

Looking away from him, Aly noticed that the washers had stopped. She slid from her seat and opened the first one, pulling its contents into the empty laundry basket. Heero walked over and did the same for the other two washers.

Together, they put the wet laundry into the dryers and started them up. As the laundry tumbled slowly in the large dryers, Heero and Aly returned to their seats and sat in silence.

The pair of gundam pilots did not speak to each other at all while the clothes dried. Neither of them was really feeling talkative anymore. And, neither of them would have known what to say in the first place.

The Laundry mat was silent again. Aly looked over to see that the dryers had stopped. She walked over to the first one and emptied its contents into an empty laundry basket. With little effort, she carried the basket over to a folding counter and dumped the clean laundry on top, setting the basket back down on the floor beside herself.

Across from her, she could see Heero had done the same. She picked through the clothing and began to fold, watching Heero out of the corner of her eye. Her lips twitched from trying not to smile as she watched Heero attempt to fold up one of her bras with an odd expression on his face.

With all of the laundry folded and placed back into the baskets, the pair of gundam pilots wordlessly headed back to Heero's apartment.

In the bedroom, Heero emptied his basket on the bed and began sorting through it, separating everything into two piles. Aly followed his example and began sorting though what was hers and what was his.

"Do you have enough tank tops?" Aly smirked at Heero as she added two more tank tops to his pile of clothing. The WingZero pilot glanced at her briefly before he went back to his task of sorting.

Aly frowned. It was not the first time she recalled trying to joke with Heero and he had not responded.

'Perhaps it was too much to assume he'd come out of his shell when the war ended.' Aly thought.

"Do you have anything that isn't blue?" Heero asked without looking up. That got Aly's attention. She looked at Heero with a surprised, yet amused look on her face. Heero met her gaze and a slight smirk twitched at his lips.

"I like blue." Aly smirked right back at him.

"Well I like tank tops." Heero said coolly in return. Shaking her head and smiling, Aly went back to her sorting.

That day, the pair had made a silent agreement to do the laundry together from then on.

September 3rd, A.C. 196:

Curled up against one arm of the couch, Aly sat watching the news on the flat-screened television in the living room of Heero's apartment. Heero was sitting on the other side of the couch, checking his e-mail on his laptop.

"You have a letter from Quatre." Heero said without looking up. Aly turned away from the news story about construction on the X-18999 colony and looked at Heero's laptop. He handed the small computer over to her.

Setting it on her lap, Aly clicked on the letter addressed to her. She skimmed it carefully; curious about what Quatre wanted. She had been at Heero's apartment for over a month, and had only been able to contact Quatre through an untraceable e-mail account of Heero's.

They had just recently installed a new phone line that had a blocked number, but neither Aly nor Heero had been able to give the number out to any of the other former pilots.

"Anything interesting?" Heero asked, watching Aly read.

"He saw Trowa yesterday...the circus will be on L4 for the next two months, then on L3 for the following two months...and Trowa sends greetings to both of us..." Aly skimmed through the e-mail again.

"Anything else?" Heero inquired, looking up at the news when the vice foreign minister, Relena Dorlain came on screen.

Aly had already started swiftly typing a reply when Heero had spoken.

"He wants to know if I will stay with him when it's safe." Aly said quickly, without looking up. Heero glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Were you two together before...?" Heero continued to look at the screen, focusing on the press conference with the vice-foreign minister.

Aly deleted the e-mail from Quatre and sent off her reply. She looked down at the keyboard and frowned.

"Yeah...I guess."

"So what did you tell him?"

"Maybe." Aly set the laptop down on the coffee table and walked into the kitchen. She fixed herself a glass of ice water and leaned against the kitchen counter while she gulped half of it down.

"They're talking about you on the news." Heero called from the couch. Curious, Aly walked back out into the living room. She stood beside the couch and focused on what Relena was saying.

"So far, no one has stepped up to replace the foreign minister. I know a lot of people have assumed his daughter would take his place, but at this time, no one knows if that will happen." Relena said clearly into the microphone.

"Do you know where the foreign minister's daughter is?" A reporter from the crowd asked.

"No, I have not been in contact with her for some time. I am as in the dark about her whereabouts as all of you are." Relena replied.

A news reporter came back onto the screen in Relena's place and began speaking.

"That footage was of the press conference held yesterday afternoon on the L1 colony. The vice-foreign minister left shortly there after for her home on Earth.

In other news..." The reporter began. Aly set her ice water down on the coffee table and walked away from the living room.

"Where are you going?" Heero asked, turning to watch Aly walk down the hallway.

"I'm going to call Relena."

Five minutes later, Aly watched as an image of Relena Peacecraft Dorlain appeared on the vid-phone screen in front of her.

"Natalya?" Relena asked, seeming surprised to see Aly.

"When they told me it was a business call, I expected to see some old diplomat. I am glad to see you are alive and well." Relena said with a warm smile. In spite of her cheerful attitude, Aly could see that Relena was exhausted.

"Yes, I'm fine." Aly said. She wanted to keep the conversation as short as possible.

"What would you like me to tell the public?" Relena asked, recognizing Aly's serious tone.

"Tell them that I have been grieving and have been staying with a friend in an undisclosed location." Aly said.

"OK...what about the diplomatic position? Have you considered taking your father's place?" Relena asked.

Aly ran a hand though her hair to calm her nerves. It was a big question that she had thought about a lot in the previous month.

"If you need me to I will. But, you have to understand I will need a lot of help. I have never personally handled many foreign affairs." Aly replied.

"I would like all the help I can get. It's hard to take care of everything myself. Your father really was a big help." Relena sighed, her cheerful mask finally slipping.

"I'm not sure I'd be the best person for the job." Aly said with a frown.

"Believe me, I did not think I would be either. But, in the end, you're really the best one for it. If it were an older person, new to the job, everything would be a lot different. It seems the older people are, the more stubborn they are too. I need someone like you who would have a fresh, open mind." Relena smiled weakly at Aly.

"Fine." Aly said, dropping her hand to her side.

"And, you would not have to start right away. The position does not technically have to be filled until next year...in July. The position must be filled within a year before the second in rank moves up to take their place." Relena explained.

Aly nodded, remembering something her father had said about that after Relena's adopted father had died. He had been worried that some lowly Cinq Kingdom official would be hired to replace Mr. Dorlain.

"I have to deal with a lot of legal stuff over the next few months. I will contact you again after the first of next year." Aly said, scanning Relena's expression to see if she accepted it.

"All right. I will talk to you in a few months then." Relena said.

Aly nodded once, unsure what else to say. She started to close the line when Relena stopped her.

"Oh and Natalya?" Relena said

"Yes?"

"Thanks." Relena smiled warmly before she cut the connection.

The IceAngel pilot turned off the vid-phone and stared at the blank screen for several long seconds.

'What have I gotten myself in to?' She thought.

"You feel like Chinese tonight?"

Aly turned around to see Heero leaning against the wall behind her. She shrugged to show that she had no complaints about the idea.

"Good. I don't feel like cooking tonight. There's a good place down the street." Heero said.

"You think it's OK for me to venture out now?" Aly was a bit doubtful. The only time she had left the apartment was to buy clothes her first day there. Other than that, she had not left the building. She had even resorted to doing laps up and down the buildings six flights of stairs to burn off her cabin fever and get exercise.

"Should be. You said you wanted to get a bathing suit now that pool is open. I think you need to go pick it out."

"OK. When do you want to go?" Aly glanced at her watch, seeing that it as nearly seven o'clock standard time.

"Now if you want." Heero stepped away from the wall and walked back into the living room.

"Let me grab a hat just in case." Aly disappeared into the bedroom and returned wearing a baseball cap with a popular L1 team logo on the front. Her hair was up in a ponytail, sticking through the back.

Heero had turned off the TV and all of the lights except one lamp in the living room. He held the door open and the pair walked out in silence.

It was a short walk to the same clothing store Heero had taken Aly to before, less than five minutes away. The store was a small, one story shop with various brands of both popular and off-brand clothes.

Once inside, Heero sat down on a chair outside the dressing rooms and waited patiently while Aly searched through the racks of swimsuits. She did not take long to find three different one-piece suits she deemed wearable.

Without even acknowledging Heero, she ducked into one of the dressing stalls to try them on. The woman at the front desk smiled at Heero. She was an old Chinese woman dressed in comfortable looking, white cotton pants and a matching, tunic style shirt.

Heero lived in the Chinatown part of L1. It suited his needs all right. It was the closest thing he could find to a Japanese style of living. And, not a lot of media people lived or wandered around in that area.

"Girlfriend and you go to vacation?" The old woman asked in broken English.

"No." Heero said simply. The old woman's eyes crinkled as she smiled.

"No vacation or no girlfriend?"

"No to both." Heero gave the woman a glare in hopes that she would leave him alone. The first time he and Aly had been there, she had not spoken. He wondered if the store got much business. He had never seen any other customers there before. The old lady must have felt lonely in order to talk to him.

The woman continued to smile at him, her eyes twinkling. She did not seem to even care that he was glaring at her or did not want to speak to her.

Heero was grateful that Aly did not take long to shop. The last time they were there, it had taken her less than half an hour to pick out two weeks worth of clothes. He had sat in the same chair as before and waited patiently, expecting her to take much longer than she had.

"Your find everything well?" The woman asked when Aly stepped out of the dressing room and walked up to the counter.

"Yes. Thank you." Aly pulled some money out of her back pocket and paid for her swimsuits.

The old woman folded the bathing suits and placed them in a bag along with a small package. She handed both to Aly.

"What's this?" Aly inquired, pulling the small package from her bag.

"Herbal tea. It is gift for your friend. He seem not happy." The old woman smiled secretively at Aly. The IceAngel pilot glanced at Heero who was standing in the open doorway.

"Oh. He is always that way. But, thank you." Aly smiled and bowed at the old woman before walking outside with Heero.

While the pair of gundam pilots walked in silence to the small restaurant on the corner, the IceAngel pilot thought back to what the old woman in the shop had said. She had referred to Heero as Aly's friend.

Glancing out of the corner of her eye at him, she pondered over that. She had not known Heero very long. And, they did not really communicate much. However, when she thought about it, she was used to Heero after living with him for a month. Perhaps, given time, he would become more of a friend.

"What?" Heero asked, noticing Aly's stare.

"The old lady thinks your mean." She said with a teasing smile.

"Hn." Was Heero's only reply, but Aly could tell he was amused.

-End of Chapter 9-

Authors Notes:

Hey Minna-san!

Sorry for taking so long to update. I got some serious writer's block. But, I am back, and in a great mood to write! I am finally getting to the less AU, more original part of the story and it is becoming much easier to write. I will probly start up the next chapter tonight even.

Hope you liked this chapter. I know it was kinda pointless, but I am trying to keep Heero in character and still show how he would react to having a girl living with him. Hope it turned out OK... ();

Please don't forget to review! It means a lot to me! Thanks!

-AlyRain

January 2004. 


	11. Ch 10: More Favors

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

"A New Ally(1)" Chapter 10: More Favors

Dive, flip, turn, kick off. Aly repeated a flip-turn as she continued her thirtieth lap across the indoor swimming pool of Heero's apartment building.

When she reached the end of the pool, she stopped, gripping the side and hoisting herself out of the water. She stood up and picked up her towel from a nearby lounge chair. She dried off her face and wrung out her hair, before covering her one-piece, black bathing suit clad self.

The young girl walked to the sauna and turned it on, flicking on the light before she stepped into the hot, wood lined room. Spreading out her damp towel on one of the second level benches, Aly stretched out on her stomach and laid her chin on her arms.

There was a creaking noise as the door opened. Aly glanced up to see a girl who looked about three years older than her walk in.

The girl was pretty, with dark brown hair and startling brown eyes. Her slender figure was accentuated by the skimpy two-piece bathing suit she wore. Aly noted that her posture and attire gave her a somewhat sultry appearance.

"Oh sorry, didn't know anyone was in here." The girl said with a smile.

"It's OK." Aly said.

"You sure?" The girl asked, her dark brown eyes staring at Aly curiously.

"Positive." Aly said as she laid her head back down.

"Thanks. I wanted to come in here to relax after my shower... Hey you're the girl who lives in 617." The girl said, brushing her damp, thick hair over one shoulder.

"Yeah..." Aly said, looking up again, somewhat concerned about being recognized. In all her time at Heero's apartment, she had never seen anyone else who lived there.

"I saw you and that one guy taking your laundry downstairs yesterday." The girl said as she spread out her own towel on the bench below Aly's.

"Oh." Was all the IceAngel pilot could think of saying.

"I've never seen you around here before; are you new to the building?"

"Yeah."

"Welcome to the building then. I'm Cherise Franklin."

"Aly Shadows." Aly replied, studying Cherise closely.

"That guy you were with, is he your boyfriend?"

"No." Aly replied. She tried to analyze the new girl as best she could. Cherise had an odd look in her eyes. They reminded Aly of the eyes of a tiger: cool, but deadly.

"Oh, too bad. He's cute." Cherise smiled to herself and laid down on her back, closing her eyes.

The IceAngel pilot laid back down, unsure of how to react to Cherise. She seemed so cool and confident; almost like a mercenary in the Mafia might be.

Aly slowly pushed herself onto her hands and knees and gathered up her towel. She stepped down from her bench, careful not to step on Cherise on her way down.

"Overheated?" Cherise asked without opening her eyes.

"Yeah." Aly replied simply before she opened the door.

"Nice meeting you. Maybe I will see you around here more often Natalya." Cherise said.

That caused Aly to freeze halfway out the door.

"Why'd you call me Natalya?" Aly turned to Cherise with an innocently confused smile on her face. Inside, her instincts were screaming at her to beat the daylights out of the older girl.

Cherise sat up on her elbows, bringing her eyes to meet Aly's.

"That is your name isn't it? Natalya Tayeari?" Cherise smiled like a tigress.

"No. My name is Aly Shadows." Aly said, never losing her award winning, false smile.

"Sorry. You look a lot like her you know...the foreign minister's daughter." Cherise smiled, that same dangerous smile.

"I get that a lot. It was nice meeting you Cherise." Aly said.

"Yeah. Take good care of that room mate of yours." Cherise laid back down and closed her eyes again.

"Of course." Aly closed the door behind herself and walked briskly out of the pool room. As soon as she was outside, in the hallway, she slowed down a bit, trying to calm her nerves.

'Take care of my roommate? Was that a threat?' Aly thought. The way that Cherise had said it, and the look in her eyes, Aly did not doubt the possibility. She had no fear of the girl. Heero could take care of himself, but the girl seemed too cocky. Perhaps she had powerful friends.

"I'm being paranoid." Aly scolded herself aloud as she stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the 6th floor.

The IceAngel pilot felt a jolt of energy jump through her as she heard a thump. Looking up, she saw that someone had caught the elevator doors before they closed. The person stepped into the elevator, the doors closing behind them before they spoke to her.

"Surprise."

"Where the hell did you come from?" Aly asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Hmm...Not exactly the greeting I expected..." Quatre smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. It's been...a weird day." Aly said, frowning down at her flip-flops.

"Seems like it." Quatre said.

"I'm glad to see you, but a little confused on how you appeared out of no where." Aly offered Quatre a small smile.

"Ah, yes. Well, I was in town." Quatre said, returning her smile.

"How did you know where to go?" The elevator signaled the arrival on the sixth floor with an electronic ding. Aly and Quatre proceeded down the hallway towards Heero's apartment.

"A friend gave me directions. And, I wanted it to be a surprise, so... here I am."

"Hm. Remind me later to kill him." Aly grumbled, wrapping her towel closer around herself to ward off the cold breeze from the air conditioning units.

"He was keeping a promise. You can understand that." Quatre laughed, his eyes twinkling with his cheerful mood.

"Yeah...sure. I can understand him allowing someone to make me think I was going to have to fight a person off on an elevator, in a bathing suit..." Aly said sarcastically.

"Glad to see you're doing well." Quatre laughed again.

Turning away from him, Aly knocked three times on the door. She had not bothered to bring a key, knowing Heero had not planned to go anywhere.

There was no answer for several minutes, so Aly knocked again, more loudly that time. In the back of her mind, she hoped that Heero had not changed his mind and run off somewhere.

The door was jerked opened to reveal Heero wrapped from the waist down in a towel. His hair hung limply on his head, weighted down by the water dripping from his brown locks.

The sight was amusing for Aly. Heero's hair always looked untamable, and for once it was flat. It was an eccentric look for him.

Aly simply quirked an eyebrow at Heero's appearance. Since her stay with Heero, Aly had taken a long time to get used to Heero's post shower, towel clad self. It was hard for her to try not to stare at his bare chest and well developed arms.

Aly stepped past him and walked inside, followed by Quatre.

"Nice to see you again Heero." Quatre said, nodding towards Heero.

"Yeah..." Heero said, brushing his sopping bangs out of his face. "How long have you been here?"

"Only a few minutes. I found Aly at the elevator and followed her up." Quatre explained.

"Heh...found..." Aly mumbled.

"She is a little upset that she did not know I was coming." Quatre said in response to Heero's sideways glance at Aly.

"Are you done in the shower? I'm cold and I need to get this chlorine off." Aly said, shivering as her damp hair dripped water down her back. Her towel was also wet, so it did not help her much.

"Yeah, go."

"K. Thanks." Aly dashed off in the direction of the bathroom. She was glad Heero had just showered so the bathroom was warm and steamy.

"I'm going to get dressed. Have a seat." Heero said.

"All right. Thank you." Quatre said as he sat down on the living room couch. Heero nodded and walked back into the bedroom.

Fifteen minutes later, Aly stepped into the living room. She found Quatre and Heero both sitting on the couch, watching the evening news.

"Did I miss anything important?" Aly asked, staring at the screen with disinterest.

"Just local news." Quatre replied.

"Oh."

"Are you two hungry? I thought it would be nice if the three of us went out for dinner tonight." Quatre said.

"You two go." Heero said, staring at the T.V.

"You sure?" Quatre asked.

"Yeah."

"Do you want us to bring you back anything?" Aly said, trying to read Heero's far away expression.

"No, I will be fine." The WingZero pilot looked away from the news and glanced between the two.

Quatre stood from his seat and joined Aly by the door.

"Well, I will bring Aly back by eleven." Quatre said with a friendly smile.

"Fine."

The two males did not exchange any more words before Aly and Quatre shuffled out the door. Closing it behind them, Aly stared at the door for several seconds before she linked her arm with Quatre's and began walking down the hall.

"So where are we going?" Aly asked, smiling up at the blonde boy and clasping his hand in hers.

"Feel like Italian?"

Around 8:30 p.m., Standard Time, Quatre and Aly had finished eating, and had wandered into a small park in Sector 3 of the L1 colony, near Quatre's hotel room. The pair sat down on a wooden bench near a water fountain and watched the rushing water.

"I finished organizing all of your legal affairs." Quatre said, trying to start some form of conversation.

"Thanks...I appreciate it a lot. I doubt I could have handled it all by myself." Aly said with a small smile.

"It was quite a bit to go through. You inherited several different estates scattered around Earth... an estate on L3, one on L4, and the insurance alone from the house that was on L7 was enough to cover the taxes for most of them for the next four years..." Quatre shook his head in wonderment.

"Damn..." was all Aly could think of to say.

"That's what I said." Quatre laughed lightly.

"What am I supposed to do with it all?" The brunette furrowed her brow in thought.

"Who knows...maybe it will all prove useful someday." Quatre shrugged.

"Yeah..."

"Oh, and, I have a message for you..." Quatre trailed off.

"From who?" Aly looked at him in curiosity.

"A man who said he was Am�'s father..."

"What did he say?" The IceAngel pilot was at full attention then.

"He said...that his daughter had gone somewhere a few months ago. And, she had told him; he should contact you if he did not hear back from her. He was unsure how to reach you though...so he gave me the message, knowing somehow that I was responsible for your legal affairs." Quatre explained.

"Did he leave any contact information?" Aly asked.

"Yes." Quatre reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper with a phone number scribbled on it.

"Did you do a check on the number?" Aly asked, taking the slip from him.

"Yeah...I found out that he is the head of this new organization called 'Preventors' they are a group that tries to stop possible war threats."

"Alliance-affiliated?"

"Not sure."

"Hmm." Aly slipped the piece of paper into her own pocket.

"You think your friend is OK?"

"Not sure. I am going to contact him tomorrow." Aly said, trying not to think of what problems Am� may have gotten into.

Silence fell between the pair of gundam pilots for several minutes. Aly was wrapped up in memories of Am� and Quatre was not sure what else to say.

"I missed you." Quatre finally said, breaking the silence.

"I missed you too." Curling up on the bench, Aly leaned into Quatre's side, snuggling close to him while he put his arm around her.

"Will you come with me to L4?" Quatre asked, looking at the fountain in front of them. Aly looked up at him, meeting his gaze. She saw the hope in his eyes and felt unsure what to think.

"I don't know...If Am� is in trouble, I may have to go away for a long time. I can't promise anything."

"I understand." Quatre smiled warmly at her, but she could see the disappointment in his eyes. The IceAngel pilot felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. It was not the first time she had brushed him off.

"Maybe when I get back. The media is sure to have died down by then...and, maybe you could even help me with my Foreign Minister duties." The brunette offered him a weak smile.

"All right. I will look forward to it." Quatre flashed her a genuine smile.

Aly turned away and looked at the fountain. She remained quiet, content with her decision.

The following afternoon, Aly was in the room she shared with Heero, hastily stuffing various items into the open duffel bag on the bed. Ignoring the fact that Heero was watching silently beside the doorway, Aly stepped over to the closet and pulled her thin black jacket off it's hanger.

"I thought your father was the one who gave you your missions." Heero said. The WingZero pilot was in the dark as to why Aly was leaving so suddenly. After she had gotten off the phone, the IceAngel pilot had only informed Heero that she was going on a mission before she had rushed to the bedroom to pack.

"He was. This is a self-instituted mission." Aly said, her eyes narrowed in a look of determination. She tossed her jacket on the bed and zipped the duffel bag shut.

"How long?"

"Three months, maybe four. No contact." She pulled on her jacket before picking up her duffel bag and slipping the strap over her shoulder. Without speaking to him, Aly breezed past Heero, out of the room.

"Then what?" Heero asked, following her out of the room. Aly stopped halfway to the door and turned on her heel to face him. In her rush to make her shuttle flight and get to Earth, she had not bothered to consider what came afterwards.

"Quatre wants me to stay with him." Aly replied, adjusting the strap of the duffel bag to sit more comfortably across her chest.

"Does he know you are leaving?"

"I told him it was a possibility." Aly frowned.

Heero was a bit troubled. The girl before him had been his roommate for over a month. It was strange to find her leaving so unexpectedly. The WingZero pilot felt he should say more, but was unsure what.

When Heero did not speak further, the brunette turned back around and headed for the front door. Her earlier anxiety was returning. She knew her shuttle would depart in less than an hour.

Reaching absentmindedly into her jeans pocket to check for her ID, Aly paused when she felt a crumpled slip of paper there. Fishing the paper out and examining it, her brow furrowed in thought.

Aly felt guilty, realizing what she was doing. Heero had taken her in, and she had been about to leave all of the sudden without even thanking him for all he had done for her. She turned back around to face Heero once again, knowing what she had to do.

"Heero, I appreciate everything you have done for me. And, I know it seems inappropriate of me, but I need to ask you for another favor." The IceAngel pilot looked back up at Heero with a strange mix of emotions on her face.

"What?" Heero asked, curiosity flashing briefly in his eyes.

"If you don't hear from me, in four months. I want you to contact this person." Aly held out the same slip of paper that Quatre had given to her the previous day.

"Why me?" Heero asked, staring at the paper in her hand.

"I don't want the others to worry." She replied. Heero took the paper from her and nodded once to show his acceptance. Aly turned around and opened the door, stepping outside.

"Four months." Heero stated. The IceAngel pilot looked back in the door and nodded. She gave him a small smile of appreciation, and with that, she was gone.

Heero stared at the closed door for a long time. It signified that he had been shut off from the world again, left inside with his only solitude.

-End of Chapter 10-

Author's Notes:

Please Review! It means so very very much to me. I get all excited and tingly inside when I find out I have reviews. Make my day, gimme a review. I need it to live! Well, not really...but they're very nice to get.

-AlyRain 


	12. The Dark Side Of The Sun

Disclaimer: Yeah...I don't own GW. It's a sad, sad truth, but I admit to it willingly. :Smiles sheepishly at lawyers waving lawsuit forms:

WARNING: This chapter contains discussion of violence and adult material.

A New Ally(1) Chapter 11: The Dark Side of The Sun

Staring up at the dark wooden door, Aly pressed her lips together into a thin line. Brandished on the door was a nameplate that read, "Dr. Rossman, Director". Beside the English letters, there were a few Japanese characters carved in to the brass plate. With little understanding for written Japanese, Aly assumed it was the equivalent of the man's name.

Dr. Rossman was Ami's father and the director of the Preventors. In all the time Aly had known Ami, she had never once met the girl's father. He had scarcely made visits to the L7 Colony while Aly and Ami had lived there. It was usually Ami who went to Earth to visit him.

Taking a calming breath, Aly knocked briskly on the door before her. It was only a matter of seconds before a gruff voice barked out, "come in!" in both English and Japanese.

Turning the knob and walking in, Aly shut the door behind herself. At the other side of the dimly lit room sat a gray-haired man behind a large desk. He brought his head up from the folder on his desk and seemed surprised to see Aly standing there.

The man had red-rimmed, tired eyes. It seemed as though either his job or the stress over his missing daughter had taken a lot out of him. Aly felt sorry for him. He seemed like a very compassionate person.

"Who are you? Namae wa?" The man barked out in English and Japanese.

"My name is Aly. We spoke on the phone yesterday." Aly said with a light bow.

"You're Aly? I expected to see someone twice your age... But, I guess if Ami trusts you, I trust you. I'm Dr. Rossman." He said with a light bob of his head. "Suate, kudasai. Sit, please." He gestured towards one of the leather chairs facing the desk.

Keeping her expression cool and emotionless, Aly sat down in the chair he had pointed to. She kept her legs uncrossed and her back straight, never losing her stoic expression.

"As I told you on the phone, Ami left your name as her emergency contact. A few weeks ago, she went on a recon. mission in France. There was an old chateau rumored to hold a rather large group of rebels and their personal...prison."

"Personal prison?" Aly said, unsure what he meant.

"They have hostages...any person in the nearby area who opposes their organization, they throw into their prison... Ami sent out one report on the exterior aspects of the prison. That was her last report. We have not heard from her since then. It is almost certain that she has been taken hostage by the rebels." Dr. Rossman's expression turned grief.

"It is a place of nightmares...I fear the worst may have happened to her..." Dr. Rossman closed his eyes and drew in a shaky breath. He was losing his calm very quickly.

"I will find her. What help can you give me?" The Ice Angel pilot said rather calmly, despite the small knot forming in the pit of her stomach.

"In order to help you, I will need you to temporarily enlist in the Preventors. As a Preventor, you will have access to all equipment, contacts, services, information; anything you may need on this mission." Dr. Rossman said.

"Fine." Aly stated after a moment's hesitation.

With one quick nod, Dr. Rossman turned to his computer and began typing briskly.

"Ami did not give me any information about you, so I am assuming there is a reason. I won't ask you who you are, nor how my daughter knows you. The best conclusion would be for you to have a false identity all together." Dr. Rossman said as he continued typing.

Over the next hour, the Preventors director worked to make a false profile and background for Aly. As far as the organization was concerned, she was just another person, trying to keep the peace between the colonies and earth.

Now connected to main server

Please type message now

User: Tsunami

Location: France

Time: 1200 hours local

Message: I have easily located the aviary. No sign of the lost bird yet. I learned from local townspeople that they are looking for new trainers. I plan to attend the meeting tomorrow afternoon. If I get the job, I will lose contact for several weeks.

I will do more bird-watching tonight. I heard they let the birds out on the main grounds to get some fresh air at night. Perhaps I will spot the lost one.

Sending message... Please wait...

Message sent

With a determined look on her face, the Ice Angel pilot cleared the memory of her Preventors issued laptop. She had already been in France for three days. In that time, she had been required to send at least one mission update per day. The protocol was more of a hassle than anything else to the young female pilot. It seemed more logical to devote all of her attention to the mission rather than sit around having to log in to secret forums and send out messages to Rossman, the director of the Preventors.

Shutting the lid to her black, portable PC, Aly glanced to her left at a group of young men sitting two tables away. The young men were clad in uniforms of sort; each had on black pants, a blue, button-down shirt, and a black cap. On their right arms were black armbands with a red, setting sun.

The group of three males were not the only ones in the small, outdoor French café wearing that uniform. Aly observed that four of the other seven white, wire tables were occupied by both males and females in the same uniform.

It was not entirely surprising how widespread the popularity of "The Sunset" was in that particular, small French town. In the previous two days, Aly had learned many things about Sunset. Mainly, she had learned that young persons had two choices: to either join Sunset, or be thrown in the prison-made chateau on the other side of the woods where death was the least of one's worries.

Sunset had been around for quite some time. It was hard to find many people who did not approve of the rather oppressing faction. The youths in the café were a prime example. They were all laughing and carrying on as though it were normal that some of their former friends and neighbors had been locked in to a cruel, torturous prison.

It appalled Aly to see them that way, so carefree. In a matter of hours, those same young adults and teens would be taking their buses and jeeps back to the prison where they worked as guards or completed training as soldiers. They would keep those same, carefree looks as they watched others receive cruel, limitless beatings or in some instances, extermination.

The three boys to Aly's left were looking at her oddly while talking amongst themselves. It appeared as though they were convincing one boy to go over and speak to her. After a few short moments, the boy finally gave in and stood, making slow strides over to where the Ice Angel pilot sat.

Standing before her, Aly was able to carefully scrutinize the young man. He was rather attractive with a strong upper body and a soft, bronze complexion. With his boyish features and dark, brown hair curling out from under his black cap, Aly estimated that he was just shy of eighteen years of age.

"Je m'excuzes, mademoiselle..." The boy addressed her tentatively.

"Oui?" Aly replied, keeping her face calm, despite her annoyance at being interrupted from her train of thought.

"My name is Erik." The boy said in fluent French.

"Marianne." Aly said slowly, putting on a falsely innocent and timid smile.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Marianne." Erik said as he grasped her hand and kissed the top of it lightly as the traditional French greeting.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well Erik." Aly replied.

"Please excuse my curiosity, but my friends and I were simply wondering what brings you to Ville-Soleil. It is a small town and it is rare that a solitary, young woman would arrive so suddenly." Erik said casually as he let go of the Ice Angel pilot's hand.

"I came here to join up with The Sunset. A friend of mine joined not too long ago. She finally convinced me to follow suit." Aly said as she nodded towards the armband he was wearing.

"A friend of yours? What is her name?" Erik asked, suddenly curious.

"Lise Alouette." The female pilot lied easily.

"Eh... I have never heard of such a girl. Sorry." Erik's smile fell as he furrowed his brow in thought.

"It's all right. She usually keeps to herself." Aly said, reassuringly.

"Well, what section are you hoping to join?" Erik said, his boyish smile returning.

"Mobile-suit piloting."

"Really? My friends and I are pilots." Erik nodded towards where his two friends still sat, watching him with amused smiles on their faces.

"See, Jaques and Luk. What about your Lise, is she a pilot too?"

"No, she is a mechanic."

"Oh. Well, at least you will have me to work with."

"Oui." The conversation was going on far too long. Aly realized she could not really use the boy to her advantage. He was a pilot, not a prison guard. With his innocent charm, it made Aly wonder if he even knew what went on in the other half of the chateau-prison.

"Erik! Allez-viens!" Erik and Aly both looked over to see Jaques and Luk waving from where they stood on the sidewalk down the road from the café.

"Zut. It's time for me to go back to work. Perhaps I will see you tomorrow Marianne. Good luck." Erik said with a friendly smile.

"Erik!" Jaques and Luk called again.

"Merci. See you later." Aly said with a smile before Erik turned and dashed down the road to join his impatient friends.

After Erik and his friends were out of sight, Aly paid for her lunch and left the little outdoor café. It was a short walk to the small apartment the Preventors had arranged for her to stay in, but Aly was in a hurry. In a few hours, she would travel through the woods at the edge of the town and continue her observation of the prison.

It was sad to know that the tiny French town of Ville-Soleil was the neighbor of such an awful place like The Sunset Prison. With its quaint little shops, calm cobblestone roads, and antique-looking apartments, Ville-Soleil hardly seemed like the hometown of cruel soldiers and prison guards.

With a frown, working its way onto her face, Aly climbed the metal steps up to the front door of her second floor apartment. She pulled out the key and inserted it into the lock, turning the brass knob after the small click of the tumbler turning inside.

Stepping in to the single room apartment, Aly closed the door behind herself and locked it. She set her laptop case beside the door and placed one foot behind the other to slide off her sneakers. Leaving her shoes by the door, she made her way over to her bed in a few short strides. Aly laid down atop the blankets, closing her eyes and trying to clear her mind as sounds from the open, bedside window filtered into her room on the breeze.

It was nearly eight PM, local time. Aly lay on her stomach beneath a bush near the edge of the woods leading to the Sunset Prison. From the woods, there was a slight slope of a hill leading down to the approximately one hundred meters of open field before the tall, stone-column, chain-link, electric fence surrounding the outer walls of the prison-made chateau.

From her position at the woods' edge, atop the small hill, Aly could clearly see over the fence, into the outer wall of the prison where a large group of prisons in ragged clothing were being marched around a grassy courtyard.

Holding her binoculars tightly, Aly held her breath as she carefully searched the group of prisoners for one particular French-German girl. Every evening, the prisoners were marched outside and forced to run or fight each other as a form of exercise the leaders of Sunset deemed necessary for their pitiful existence. There were six groups of prisoners for the six leaders or Sunset. Each group was marched outside in shifts for one hour at a time.

The group Aly was presently watching was the final group of the night. She had been there, beneath that bush, watching the prisoner exercise period for five hours already. The Ice Angel pilot was beginning to lose hope for finding Ami alive.

The sound of approaching footsteps got Aly's attention. She lowered her binoculars and strained her ears for the source of the noise. It sounded as though two people were running towards her, but what they were running from, she could not discern.

After a few short seconds, Aly could make out the sounds of other footsteps. Four others were closely pursuing the pair running towards her. A shot thundered through the silence of the woods and one of the two fell.

A girl with dirty, short, auburn colored hair came into Aly's view. The girl was thin, obviously malnourished, yet stunningly pretty despite her weakened state. Based on her torn jeans and shredded blouse alone, Aly could tell that the teenage girl was an escaped prisoner.

Pausing to jerk her head in both directions as she neared the edge of the woods, the girl seemed to have a momentary panic. If she kept going, she would end up back at the prison. Her pursuers were now coming at her from more than one direction and she was unsure which way to run.

More shots sounded from the direction the girl had come from. Aly felt her heart race as she feared for the girl's safety. Her pursuers would surely find her, and when they did, they would kill her without hesitation just like the person the girl had been with seconds before.

Without another thought, Aly leapt from the bushes. The other girl simply stared at her with her mouth open as if to scream in surprise. Grabbing the girl forcefully, Aly dragged her into the safety of the bushes and held her to the ground.

"Who...who are you?" The girl whispered in English.

"Unimportant. Stay quiet." Aly hissed as she pushed the girl further into the brush. The girl's pursuers were closing in on their hiding space.

Climbing slowly out from the brush herself, Aly switched the safety off of her automatic gun. The young pilot walked silently away from the bush and ducked behind the trunk of a nearby tree.

The footsteps of the girl's pursuers had slowed down. They were trying to sneak up on her. Peaking around the tree's wide trunk, Aly could make out the dark forms of four uniformed soldiers, all walking forward quietly with guns raised. It was nearly twilight and the woods made the whole atmosphere seem even darker and more menacing.

A crunching noise behind her caused Aly to whirl around, coming face to face with the barrels of not one, but two guns.

"Fuck." Was all she managed to say before a hard object struck her on the side of the head. Apparently, one of the original four soldiers she had seen had caught up in time to hit her in the head with his gun.

The female and male soldiers in front of her seemed to sway back and forth as her vision blurred. Aly sank to her knees, unable to maintain physical stability after the sudden blow to the head. Her gun slipped from her fingers and made a light thump in the dirt.

When her eyes cleared again, she discovered that she was surrounded by six soldiers; two females and four males. The soldiers appeared bloodthirsty and angry after chasing the auburn girl Aly had hidden. The Ice Angel pilot doubted they would show her any type of mercy. And, to make matters worse, they were all pointing their guns at her.

Lowering her head and accepting her fate, Aly closed her eyes and waited for the pain of their bullets slicing into her skin. She had failed her mission. The mission had been jeopardized when she had decided to save the girl with the auburn hair. Everything was her fault, and she was ready to accept the consequences of her actions.

"Should we shoot her, Ma'am?" One of the male soldiers asked.

"Shoot her? No, of course not. Don't you know who this is? She's Natalya Tayeari, The daughter of the late Foreign Minister. Don't you see how fortunate this is?" The older female soldier, obviously the one in charge replied.

"How so, Ma'am?" The only other female soldier asked.

"I doubt Ravana will be so quick to kill us for losing the other girl if we bring him Tayeari here." The female in charge replied with slyness in her tone.

Somehow, Aly felt as though she would have been better off, if they had simply shot her instead.

"Ravana. I've got a present for you."

With a grunt, Aly fell to her knees in front of a large desk. Her hands were chained behind her back, with heavy, electronic cuffs containing weights around her ankles. Mustering what little strength the girl had left, she brought herself back to her feet and glared at the man known as Ravana.

The man had a medium complexion. He looked like a native Frenchman, with long, dark hair, dark eyes, and a small nose. Ravana was beautiful. Beautiful, but deadly.

His eyes were what frightened Aly the most. They were pure evil. Ravana, with his beautiful, dark brown, nearly black hair and wolfish smirk, had the most frightening, dark eyes she had ever seen. His eyes looked as though they were entirely black, with no visible irises in their depths. Yet, looking closer, Aly discovered that they were not black, but an intense shade of gray.

Despite all of her training over the course of her lifetime, Aly could not make her body move in any form of struggle. She stood frozen to the spot on the floor, staring with her eyes captured in the deadly look of the man called Ravana.

"Natalya...my how you've grown! You probably don't remember it, but I visited you once when you were only five or six year old."

Confusion and surprise flashed onto Aly's face. Surely one would not forget someone like Ravana. After a short consideration, it was not so surprising after all. Aly had always had problems remembering her preadolescent years.

Forcing herself to remain calm, Aly took a few slow breaths. A million questions ran through her head. The main question of course being, why had Ravana visited her?

Snapping back into focus, Aly noticed that Ravana had left his desk in order to stand directly before her. His smirk reappeared as he reached out and grabbed a lock of her hair.

"Hmm. I always knew you would grow up to be beautiful." Ravana said softly, letting go of her hair to trace a line from her brow to her jawline with his fingers.

The Ice Angel pilot involuntarily shivered in disgust and trepidation at his touch. Physically violent abuse she had expected, but the way he touched her, Aly feared that he would rape her.

"Those chains are not all that attractive on you. I could have them removed if you would peacefully surrender yourself to me..." Ravana trailed off, letting his hand fall to his side as he studied her face.

"Surrender myself to you? I'd rather die." Aly growled, finally turning her fear into anger at his insinuations of making her his mistress.

"I expected you would say that. A shame to watch such beauty waste away in a prison cell..." Ravana shook his head in a mockery of pity. "Oh well, you will grow to like me eventually."

Stepping back, Ravana looked over Aly's head at the female soldier who still stood behind her, watching the whole scene.

"Lock her up, under my section." Ravana said in a low, dark tone, quite different from the tone he had given Aly.

"Yes, sir." The female soldier said curtly, grabbing Aly roughly and dragging the girl towards the door with the help of two other male soldiers who had accompanied her.

It seemed like nearly half an hour of twists and turns down marble-lined hallways before Aly found herself facing the heavy metal door of her prison cell. The door opened and Aly was shoved inside, landing awkwardly on her stomach on the cold, hard floor.

With the wind knocked out of her, the Ice Angel pilot barely noticed as the electronic door slid shut behind her. The room was dark, the only window of the metal lined cell was on the door, and the window had been closed from the outside.

After catching her breath, Aly rolled onto her back and slowly sat up. The girl scooted herself over to the wall and leaned against it. With a grunt of strain, Aly slid her chained arms beneath herself and managed to get her arms under her legs so that they were in front of her.

Unsure of how the locks on the chains and shackles about her wrists worked, Aly sighed and gave up her attempts to remove them. With the wall as leverage, she rose to her feet and moved shakily towards the back of the room.

In her efforts, Aly had not realized it before, but she was not alone. There was one, slow, uneven breath at the opposite side of the cell.

"Who are you?" Aly asked the darkness. Her heart was beating rapidly as her fear grew. Simply because she was chained up, it did not mean that her cell-mate was. Nor did it imply that her cell-mate was not hostile.

Stopping when her shin bumped into something short, Aly reached down to inspect the object and look for the source of breathing. The object she had bumped in to was a metal-framed, rickety bed.

Without warning, a hand reached up and grasped Aly's arm, sending a jolt of shock through her system at the cold touch. A gasp of surprise hissed through her parted lips. It felt as though the grim reaper himself had grasped her.

"Don't be afraid. I can't move fast enough to hurt you." A strained voice whispered.

Analyzing how weak the other person's speech seemed, Aly believed the voice and tried to calm herself down. The hand let go of her arm, leaving a patch of goosebumbs in its wake.

Coughing quietly, the person on the bed below spoke again. Aly wished that there were the tiniest bit of light. The pitch black of the cell was unnerving and difficult to maneuver in.

"How'd you end up here?" The female voice asked.

"I was captured as a spy." The Ice Angel pilot answered truthfully.

"Me too... There's another bed to the right of this one if you want to sit down." The girl said before coughing lightly again.

Aly slowly went around the foot of the girl's bed and managed to find the other bed. She sat down on the edge, frowning at the creaking noise it made as her weight forced the coils of the frame to stretch.

A shuffle of sheets and a creaking of coils signaled to Aly that the other girl had rolled over to face her.

"What section did they put you in?"

"Section?" Confusion was evident in the teen's tone.

"What leader are you under?" The other girl reiterated.

"Oh... Ravana."

"You're lucky."

"Why?" Aly did not consider anything dealing with that particular prison to be lucky.

"Ravana doesn't like having his prisoners...marked."

"Marked?" Aly prompted.

"He thinks people are beautiful and should not have scars. They can be beaten, have broken bones...but no burns, no cuts, no scars...Especially for the females." The girl explained.

"And the other leaders?"

"Anything is considered acceptable. Some of the soldiers here...like to be creative. They consider torture to be an art form. Others just vent all of their aggressions; see prisoners as swine rather than human beings." A touch of anger entered the girl's quiet tone as she obviously spoke from experience.

"How long have you been here?" Aly asked, trying to take the girl's focus from her obviously painful memories.

"Three months...maybe more. I've lost track of the days... I guess I gave up hope for..." The girl trailed off, sniffling slightly and choking back a sob before continuing. "I'm sorry. I have been so sick they have just left me in here. I have not spoken to anyone else in a long time."

"It's all right." Aly felt her heart clenching at the girl's suffering. So far, Aly had been shoved around a bit and knocked in the head once, but no real torture had fallen on her. It was inexcusable for her to have given in so easily. She had to escape, regardless of what the girl in the other bed told her.

"Strange...when you think of being... you don't think about the infections you can get from it. I never thought it were possible to die from something like this..." The girl whispered, seemingly in a daze.

"From what?" Aly asked, uncertain what the girl had been referring to.

"I was weak before...but no where near this bad... I have some kind of disease now. The examiners say I got an infection when one of the soldiers...had his way with me."

The girl shivered and Aly was not sure if it was due to her state of health, the memory of her abuse, or both. Either way, Aly wished at that moment that she could blow the prison to smithereens after slowly killing all of the Sunset Leaders.

"I'm sorry." Aly whispered, feeling her stomach tying in knots at the horror stories this girl was alluding to.

"It was my fault...if I had never..." The girl trailed off, sniffling back tears again. "My daughter...I love her so much. I do not regret having her." The girl seemed to be in a slight delirium, letting out stories and secrets to a person she did not even know.

"Is she...?"

"No. Thank god. She is with her grand father, safe, somewhere far from this hellish place."

The Ice Angel pilot was confused as to why the girl would regret having a child. Was it because she missed her child? Or was it for some other reason; had it jeopardized her mission the way compassion for the auburn-haired girl had jeopardized Aly's mission?

"If only they had not known..."

"Known what?" Aly asked, snapping back to attention.

"That I had a daughter...maybe I would have gone to Ravana's section instead. Ravana likes the untainted ones... all his soldiers know not to...mar any of his. I was tainted though...that's why I am here. That's why I am wasting away."

Lying down slowly on her side, everything sank into Aly's head. There was so much corruption within that prison. Ravana was twisted, the other leaders were twisted, the soldiers were twisted; they were all twisted. One way or another, Aly knew she had to escape. And if possible, she would take the girl with her.

Physical exertion and fear had taken a lot out of Aly. It would be difficult to sleep, but the teen knew she needed to store up her energy if she were to endure whatever the soldiers had planned for her.

"You should sleep." The girl said, adding more confirmation to Aly's earlier thought.

"Yeah."

"Before you sleep, I want to know your name. You can lie to me if you like, but I would prefer to call you something other than girl."

"Marianne." Aly said, sticking to the name she had given to Erik at the café.

"Hm. I'm Ami." The girl said softly.

Aly's felt her heart skip a beat before chills raced down her spine and her blood ran cold.

-End of Chapter 11-

Author's Notes:

Wow, sorry that took so long to post. I wrote this last night. I admit it is a far cry from my best work. Then again, if you are thinking about it from Aly's Point of view, things would be a little skewed from her memory. That, and I wrote this after taking the SAT, being sick, sleeping a whoooole lot. Hehe. So, please forgive me if this chapter is lame. It will get better though! I have spent all this time trying to get up to this point.

My free-time had been limited due to the school play I was helping build sets for and running. But, now the play's over and school work is lightening up a tad. I should have a lot more time to focus and write more extensive, more thought-provoking chapters.

All this babbling leads to me saying...Sorry it's late, yes I do suffer from laziness and sleepiness. Please review any way though. All comments and critiques are greatly appreciated.

More next time!  
-AlyRain

Definitions of French used in this chapter:

1) Oui Yes 2) Merci Thank you 3) Ville-Soleil Sun City 4) Je m'excuzes Excuse me 5) Zut! shoot/ Darn!  
6) Allez-viens! Let's go! 


	13. Author's Note

-IMPORTANT NOTE FROM AUTHOR-

I've decided that I needed to edit a bit on my two stories. I started them back in seventh grade and constantly find my self fixing them. Right now, I am simply working on length and flow. I put in cliff-hangers and made chapters shorter than they should have been. Two chapters could have been one long one.

So, yeah, this is my slightly improved ANA. Look out for the next chapter and more updates soon. My senior project is ALMOST OVER!

-AlyRain Yori 


End file.
